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31 Mar 2009 : Column 1067W—continued
Yorkshire and Humber Offender Management Service: Statistics
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much time was spent by Yorkshire and Humber Offender Management Service recording ethnic monitoring statistics in ( a) 2006, (b) 2007, (c) 2008 and (d) 2009. [264577]
Mr. Straw: NOMS has a legal duty to eliminate discrimination and promote equality.
By monitoring the outcomes of policy and practice by ethnic group, we are able to identify any adverse impact on particular groups and take steps to address it. Thereby ensuring that the services we deliver are fair and make best use of resources available.
The Probation Service is required to monitor the race and ethnicity of every offender under statutory supervision and also the race and ethnicity of every offender upon whom a report is prepared to assist the court with a sentencing decision. Although these data are collected
it does not take into account the amount of time that was spent collating it. To collect this information would incur disproportionate cost.
The following table shows hours spent recording ethnic minority statistics in each establishment in Yorkshire and Humber Offender Management Service.
| Hours | ||||
| Prison | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009( 1) |
| (1) Estimated (2) Nil, as funded by YJB | ||||
Young Offender Institutions: Education
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many hours per day prisoners in young offenders’ institutions spent on (a) education and (b) other forms of work on average in the latest period for which figures are available. [264707]
Mr. Hanson: The following table shows the average(1) daily hours per prisoner for the period April 2008 to the end of February 2009 (11 months), the latest available data(2), for each young offender and juvenile establishment.
We have improved the quality of offender learning, as assessed by Ofsted over the last five years.
There has been a three-fold increase in the offender learning budget since 2001, rising to over £175 million in 2008-09, and we are increasing by a third, the number of prisoners taking part in education and training since 2006 when our new delivery arrangements were put in place.
Employment is known to be a key factor in helping to reduce reoffending. The Government’s aims therefore are to improve the quantity and quality of offender learning to provide more offenders with the skills and motivation to turn away from crime, improve their employability and become productive members of society.
(1) Purposeful activity is not routinely reported as a daily average. For this answer, the weekly hours have been divided by five to obtain a weekday average as the majority of activity will take place on weekdays.
(2) All data is provisional and subject to end year validation.
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