Prisons: Race Equality Action Team Training

Philip Davies
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many people in HM Prison Service have completed race equality action team training; and how much this training has cost;

(2) how many people in HM Prison Service have completed the race equality officer training course; and how much this training has cost.

Maria Eagle
The Race Equality Action Team (REAT) training was rolled out in October 2006. Five training for trainers courses have taken place, training 79 associate trainers. In total, 1,576 REAT members had been trained by 31 December 2007—this includes 1,317 Prison Service employed REAT members, 166 prisoner representatives and 93 external representatives.

The Race Equality Officer (REO) training was rolled out in September 2007. 81 REOs have been trained to date.

The revised courses, including all course literature, were developed ‘in-house’ by two members of the Race Equality Action Group (REAG). Responsibility for the delivery of the training is shared between REAG, area offices and training services, and no figure for the cost is collected centrally.