asked Her Majesty's Government:

To what extent reformed offenders are being used in crime prevention and offender rehabilitation programmes; whether they approve of this approach, particularly for offenders under 25; and in what ways they may be able to use it more widely. [HL1642]

Ex-offenders have an important role to play in the work to rehabilitate offenders. The role of mentoring is seen by the Prime Minister as a key intervention for changing behaviour. The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has received Russell Commission funding from the Office of the Third Sector to run four mentoring projects for young adult offenders aged 18 to 25 years. The mentors will be in the same age group, and, where possible, will include ex young adult offenders.

NOMS has an ex-offender on its Offender Management Programme Board and offenders are used in a range of activities in prison and the community such as advisers, counsellors and mentors.