§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when his Department will(a) release full details of the new contracts for prison education, (b) begin accepting tenders, (c) make decisions on which tenders will be successful and (d) announce a start date for the new contracts. [187238]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisWe announced in January that we would not re-tender prison education contracts. With the creation of the new National Offender Management Service and the drive to get more resources to front-line services, we are looking to incorporate offender learning and skills more fully into mainstream further education provision.
The Offenders' Learning and Skills Unit and the Learning and Skills Council are working with the Prison and Probation Services to develop a new integrated service, initially in three development regions in England. The outcome of this work will inform the national implementation of a new, fully integrated service to offenders from September 2006.
In the meantime, in order to ensure stability as we develop the new service delivery arrangements, Prison Service officials are negotiating extensions to existing contracts from September 2004.