Prisoners: Freshstart

Lord Dholakia
asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many prisoners in England and Wales had a Freshstart meeting to arrange a jobseeker interview upon release in (a) 2005–06, (b) 2006–07 and (c) 2007–08. [HL4151]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton)
The available information on the number of interviews booked is in the table.

----------------------------------------------------------
|                            |England and Wales          |
----------------------------------------------------------
|Period                      |Number of interviews booked|
----------------------------------------------------------
|April 2005 to March 2006    |35,457                     |
----------------------------------------------------------
|April 2006 to March 2007    |34,011                     |
----------------------------------------------------------
|April 2007 to November 20071|16,013                     |
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Source: DWP Information Directorate

Note:

1. Central collection of Freshstart statistics was suspended by DWP in December 2007 due to data security issues arising from the HMRC data loss. Individual prison data are no longer collated centrally.