§ Mr. ChaytorTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of inmates of Her Majesty's prisons have achieved, as their highest level of educational qualification(a) NVQ 5 or equivalent, (b) NVQ 4 or equivalent, (c) NVQ 3 or equivalent, (d) NVQ 2 or equivalent, (e) NVQ 1 or equivalent and (f) none of these. [60156]
§ Mr. George HowarthResults of the Basic Skills Agency screening tests carried out on prisoners between January and the end of September 1998 are set out in Table 1. Table 2 provides a breakdown of the numbers of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and equivalent qualifications achieved by prisoners for the same period.
It is not possible to say to what proportion of the prison population these data relate, whether these achievements are their highest level of educational qualification, or what proportion of the prison population have none of these 615W qualifications. In order to provide this information, it would be necessary to examine individual prisoners' records.
Table 1: Basic Skills Agency screening tests—January to September 1998 Literacy Numeracy Number of prisoners tested 34,791 44,033 Below Level 1 number 12,744 15,065 percentage 36.6 34.2 At Level 1 number 11,715 15,607 percentage 33.7 35.5 Above Level 1 number 10,332 13,361 percentage 29.7 30.3
Table 2: NVQs attained by prisoners—January to September 1998 NVQ level and equivalent Number of units achieved 5 1 4 17 3 430 2 7,832 1 15,220 Entry 98 Total 23,598