Select committee: Education Committee
Recommendation 22
First report - Not just another brick in the wall: why prisoners need an education to climb the ladder of opportunity
Published 18 May 2022
Paragraph 103
Addressed to Department for Education
Education Committee Prison Education All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The lack of controlled and secure access to proper online education is a significant barrier to learning. It is stifling opportunity for improvement through education and leaving prisoners unprepared for the real world, lacking the digital skills they need for employment and life skills, and reducing their likelihood of reoffending. The digital divide between prisoners and the community is ever increasing. We cannot let this continue. The pandemic has brought into stark focus the need for prisoners to be able to work individually and in their cells. The Government must set out, by the end of the year, a date for when all prisons will be able to support broadband.
From: Education Committee, First report - Not just another brick in the wall: why prisoners need an education to climb the ladder of opportunity (HC 56), paragraph 103, 18 May 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 27 September 2022 (deadline 18 July 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government accepts many of the Committee's recommendations, some of them in principle, and rejects others, giving reasons such as existing governor flexibility, budgets being "subject to future Spending Review negotiations", and the cost of loans.
- On pay, it "reject[s]" equalising education and prison work pay, saying governors "already have the necessary freedom to set local pay rates" and that it does "not propose to set additional rules on pay".
- It rejects setting a date for broadband in all prisons: in-cell laptop services will be in 15 prisons by the end of October 2022, but wider rollout is "subject to continued and long-term resourcing".
- It accepts "in principle" the call for a review of the prison education framework by the end of 2022, but says "it would not be feasible to complete this within the timescales provided".
- It accepts the recommendation on employment hubs, committing that "By April 2023, all resettlement prisons will have an employment hub in place". It rejects removing the "six-year rule" for higher education loans.