To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department and its predecessors spent on (a) prisoner education and (b) drug treatment programmes for prisoners in each of the last five years. (317245)

Table 1 following shows the amount spent on prisoner education and training in each of the last five years in public sector prisons in England, funded by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and its predecessors:

The current budget has increased threefold since 2001.

In 2003 a ministerial decision was taken that the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) took responsibility for planning, funding and, with the then Regional Offender Managers (ROMS), commissioning of a new Offenders’ Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) in public sector prisons and for offenders under supervision in community in England. OLASS came into effect across England with effect from 31 July 2006.

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) also spent a further £30 million in European Social Funds. This was used for a number of regionally commissioned projects around vocational training and employer engagement in both prisons and the community for the two calendar years 2006 and 2007. They also established a £13.9 million budget from EQUAL funding for the period December 2006 to March 2008 to meet additional provision for offenders both in custody and in the community.

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) gained co-financing organisation status in January 2009 and successfully bid for a total of £50 million of European Social Funding to enhance the skills and employment services to offenders in prison and the community. NOMS has been granted the funding over 27 months to increase offenders’ employability and improve their access to mainstream support provision. Planning is already under way to extend the funding into a second phase up to 2013.

In addition, training for prisoners is undertaken, mainly by Prison Service staff, while prisoners work or are engaged in various areas such as prison industries, catering, physical education, land based activities, industrial cleaning and laundries. The central costs of the training elements of these, mainly production functions, are not kept centrally.

Table 2 shows Ministry of Justice/Home Office additional funding allocations for the delivery of drug interventions in prisons over the last five years. The figures include funding for accredited drug treatment programmes, Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare services (CARATs), the Young People’s Substance Misuse Service (for 15 to 18-year-olds only) and Compact Based Drug Testing.

In addition to this the Ministry of Justice has permanently transferred £11.3 million a year to primary care trusts for the delivery of clinical drug treatment in prisons.