Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 37
37
Deferred
Paragraph: 200
Publish data detailing how ROL changes improved female offenders' access to Education, Training, and Employment
Recommendation
We welcome the changes to release on temporary licence to give prison governors greater autonomy and allow prisoners more opportunities to work and train with employers while serving their sentence. However, it is not clear how these changes have considered the specific needs of female offenders. The Ministry of Justice should set out how the needs of female offenders were considered in this regard—specifically in relation to Education, Training and Employment (ETE). Additionally, the MoJ should set out how the changes have improved women’s access to ETE opportunities and should provide data to demonstrate this.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government accepted the recommendation but did not explain how changes to Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL) specifically considered female offenders' Education, Training, and Employment (ETE) needs or provide data on improved ETE access via ROTL. Instead, it described a new performance measure for pre-release assessments for those with 10 months or less to serve (to be introduced in 2023) and outlined support structures for short-sentence prisoners focusing on resettlement and accommodation outcomes.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
200
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
We accept this recommendation. In the PSWP we committed to transforming the opportunities for work in prisons and on ROTL to increase job prospects for prison leavers. The needs of female offenders and the challenges presented in the women’s estate were taken into account in developing the ROTL Policy Framework that was issued in May 2019. All women’s prisons are able to conduct ROTL for eligible offenders, to ensure that ROTL is available for women across the country. Since publication of the White Paper, the Women’s Estate has been working to ensure that that all 12 women’s prisons have Employer Advisory Boards, Prison Employment Leads and Employment Hubs in place to support and empower women to engage in employment opportunities in the prison, on ROTL and on release (see further detail under recommendation 32). Data on ROTL is published quarterly at Offender management statistics quarterly—GOV. UK and monitored carefully to ensure that ROTL is being used to best effect. Immediately following the issue of the new policy framework in May 2019, ROTL numbers began to rise and, by the end of 2019, work related ROTL for women had risen by 48% year on year, and ROTL for education and training by 13%. The pandemic had a significant impact on access to ROTL, numbers fell across the board and have not yet recovered to pre pandemic levels. In the first quarter of 2022, however, we saw a year-on-year increase in the use of work-related ROTL for women by 128% and education and training-related ROTL for women by 340%.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗