§ Mr. Win GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of prisoners received education and for how much time each week in(a) 1979 and (b) 1995 in (i) Wales and (ii) the regions of England. [30708]
§ Miss WiddecombeResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Richard Tilt to Mr. Win Griffiths, dated 4 June 1996:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the percentage of prisoners who received education and for how much time each week in (a) 1979 and (b) 1995 in (i) Wales and (ii) the regions of England.This information is not available in the form requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Prisoners receiving education and training may attend for only a short time, it is therefore difficult to provide information on numbers of students and easier to provide information on student hours.In 1979, when the average daily prison population was 42,220, 4.6 million student hours were spent on education and training classes by inmates. In 1995, when the average daily population (excluding those held in police cells) was 50,962, 9.4 million student hours were spent on education and training classes.All prisoners are appraised for education and their attendance is decided as part of local sentence planning. The governor will then order the appropriate amount of education to cover the planned needs of the population within the constraints of his budget.