HC Deb 18 July 2003 vol 409 cc753-4W
Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many education hours were cancelled in prisons in England and Wales in each of the last 12 months. [124920]

Mr. Ivan Lewis

The following table shows on a month-by-month basis the reported number of hours not delivered against the total number of hours ordered between June 2002 and May 2003.

Month Sum of ordered Sum of total not run
June 2002 95,576 8,083
July 2002 131,691 11,057
August 2002 104,636 8,199
September 2002 116,052 7,136
October 2002 131,860 13,248
November 2002 119,880 8,470
December 2002 94,517 7,317
January 2003 131,213 8,156
February 2003 115,905 8,082
March 2003 134,156 9,974
April 2003 115,217 6,981
May 2003 112,797 7,464
Total 1,403,500 104,167

Education hours may be lost for a range of reasons including operational difficulties in prisons, staff sickness and problems with recruiting teachers.