To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what percentage of the prison population undertakes employment-related activities; whether he has made a recent estimate of the annual average number of hours spent by prisoners on such activities; and what recent assessment he has made of the merits of such activities. (305409)

In 2008-09 an average of 13.36 hours per prisoner per week were spent on employment-related activities.

It is not possible to provide figures for the percentage of the population that takes part in employment-related activities. This is because the regime’s monitoring database records activities in hours and does not allow those activities to be broken down by individual prisoner.

Increasing offender employment rates is critical to our strategy to increase social inclusion and reduce reoffending. A key aim is to provide prisoners with employment skills, experience and motivation so they become productive members of society. A survey from 2008 of prisoners' own perception of need¹ found that most said they needed help with finding employment (48 per cent.), getting qualifications (42 per cent.) and work-related skills (41 per cent.) ahead of other help or interventions such as finding accommodation (37 per cent.), offending behaviour (34 per cent.) and drug problems (29 per cent.).

¹ Source:

MOJ Research Series 16/08: ‘The problems and needs of newly sentenced prisoners: results from a national survey’