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Prison Education

Volume 455: debated on Tuesday 9 January 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment was made of the (a) literacy, (b) numeracy and (c) writing abilities of prisoners in each of the last 10 years. (113652)

The information requested is not collected centrally. However, Home Office statistics show that 37 per cent. of prisoners had reading skills below level 1, 43 per cent. had numeracy skills below level 1, 46 per cent. had spelling skills below level 1 and 62 per cent. of prisoners had punctuation skills below level 1.

Source:

Prison Statistics for England and Wales 2002

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what his most recent assessment is of the percentage of prisoners who have no educational or other qualifications. (113653)

The Home Office publication “Through the Prison Gate”, 2001 recorded that 52 per cent. of male prisoners and 71 per cent. of female prisoners had no qualifications.