§ Mr. Tony LloydTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will set out his future plans for the prison education service; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe Prison Service has invited competitive tenders for the provision of education to inmates in prisons and young offender institutions in England and Wales, for which it is responsible, with effect from 1 April 1993. The present arrangements have to be changed because local education authorities, who currently provide education in prisons, lose most of their responsibilities for further education from that date. They will no longer be primarily responsible for a range of courses, including those leading to vocational training, GCSE and A-level courses, basic literacy courses in English, basic mathematics, English as a second language, and courses to teach independent living and communication skills. These make up the core of most education programmes in prisons.
The Government have made clear in the White Paper "Custody, Care and Justice", Cm. 1647, that education is an essential part of the opportunities which must be provided in a prison. Through more detailed specification of prisoners' requirements, establishment by establishment, by competition between the public and private sector and by rigorous monitoring, the Prison Service should be better able to ensure the future education provision offers value for money and is of a consistently high quality.
§ Mr. Tony LloydTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the application of the acquired rights directive on his plans to privatise the prison education service.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe Government are not privatising the provision of education services to prison establishments in England and Wales. The purpose of competitive tendering is to stimulate new and better ways of carrying out existing tasks by inviting tenders from both the public and the private sector. The contracts will be placed with those who offer the best combination of quality and price.
554WOn the application of the EEC acquired rights directive 77/187, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply which I gave to his question on 1 December, at column 98, and to the reply that my hon. Friend, the Minister of State, Department of Employment, gave to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton (Dr. Twinn) on 19 November, at columns 338–39. I am also placing in the Library of the House copies of guidance which, following legal advice, the Prison Service has sent to those tendering for the provision of educational services in prisons and of guidance which the Department for Education has issued on the application of the directive to staff transferring from the employment of a local education authority to a further education corporation under the provisions of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.