HL Deb 01 March 1973 vol 339 cc753-5

3.10 p.m.

THE EARL OF LONGFORD

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what facilities for education are available at Leyhill Open Prison.

THE MINISTER OF STATE, HOME OFFICE (VISCOUNT COLVILLE OF CULROSS)

My Lords, there are day classes in remedial education and evening classes in academic, technical and recreational subjects. Correspondence courses can be undertaken, tutors brought in and arrangements made for prisoners to sit for public examinations. Under certain safeguards, carefully selected prisoners are sometimes permitted day-release to attend local educational establishments.

THE EARL OF LONGFORD

My Lords, while thanking the noble Viscount for that rather cryptic Answer, may I ask him whether he is aware that Mr. Walter Probyn, a prisoner who has served many years' imprisonment, has recently been denied facilities at Leyhill which were open to him at Wormwood Scrubs?

VISCOUNT COLVILLE OF CULROSS

Yes, my Lords. I hoped that my Answer was not cryptic, but rather full. I am fully aware of the circumstances of this particular prisoner, and they are these: that while he was at Wormwood Scrubs he was doing full-time education on his own all day. The régime at Leyhill is simply not designed to allow people to do education, except for remedial education, all day, because the whole object is to create a régime where they prepare themselves, by means of discussions and activities of one sort or another, for the outside world. He can have all the facilities he wants in the evening and he will be let off for two or three weeks prior to examinations. He can have correspondence courses and tutors. He has used some of these facilities. But he must work during the weekends and in the evenings.

LORD BURNTWOOD

My Lords, to what exert are these educational plans inhibited by the degree of illiterarcy among prisoners?

VISCOUNT COLVILLE OF CULROSS

My Lords, this depends on the individual case. At most prisons the educational officer runs classes for people who are nearly, if not wholly, illiterate. This is a subject to which a good deal of attention is paid and to which I myself have paid a good deal of attention. There are quite a number of people in prison who are illiterate.

THE EARL OF LONGFORD

My Lords, may I ask a supplementary question to ask whether we are to understand that the position of this prisoner—recommended, it is said, by the Parole Board for parole; although the parole was denied by the Home Secretary—has deteriorated since he has moved to Leyhill, although he was given to understand that it would improve?

VISCOUNT COLVILLE OF CULROSS

My Lords, I should not have thought that it had deteriorated at all. The move to Leyhill is a move from a restrictive régime in a closed prison to one specifically designed to enable a man satisfactorily to take the step, after a long period of imprisonment, from a closed institutional life to ordinary life in society. I must say that education is one part, and an important part, but only one part in this process. I hope that the noble Earl will take account of the whole matter of the régime at Leyhill when he attempts to judge this matter.

LORD WYNNE-JONES

My Lords, can the noble Viscount tell us whether the facilities available at this prison include registration in the Open University plus all the tutorial facilities for the Open University.

VISCOUNT COLVILLE OF CULROSS

My Lords, I think that the answer to that question is, Yes. The tutorial facilities, as I understand, are largely television and post; and there will be no difficulty about those. That is possible, I think, if people are there long enough.

BARONESS WOOTTON OF ABINGER

My Lords, while appreciating the advantages of transfer to an open prison, may I ask the Minister whether this particular prisoner was told before he agreed to go to Leyhill—I understand that he had the option—that it would mean giving up his full-time education?

VISCOUNT COLVILLE OF CULROSS

My Lords, I am not sure of the answer to that question. I can tell the noble Baroness that we have offered that he should go back to closed conditions if he is dissatisfied, and he has said that he would rather let matters stay as they are at the moment. We will review the situation as time goes on, and if there is a possibility of giving him the facilities mentioned we will do so if he wants them.