Prisoners: Literacy Skills

Rob Marris
11. To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps his Department is taking to provide literacy skills to functionally illiterate prisoners.

Mr. Hanson
Developing literacy and numeracy of prisoners is a key part of the Government's strategy to reduce reoffending. We have implemented the Offenders' Learning and Skills Service which in the academic year 2007/08 saw prisoners, assessed as having a literacy need, enrol on to a total of 50,936 accredited literacy courses.