Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck on 2015-12-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what funding is available for illiterate prisoners to learn to read and write and to receive education while in prison.
Nick Boles
The Offender Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) budget for adults in custody in England is £128.9m for the 2015-16 financial year. This figure includes funding for the National Careers Service in custody.
The OLASS budget is not sub-divided for particular subjects or types of learning. The Skills Funding Agency’s funding rules require providers to deliver a core curriculum, commissioned by the prison Governor or the lead Governor for a cluster of prisons in conjunction with the Skills Funding Agency, which must include mandatory initial assessment of English (and maths) for all prisoners on reception to custody, as well as English, maths and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), vocational qualifications, including Information and Communications Technology (ICT), and employability skills (which may include a wide range of team-working, personal, social and other skills).
