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Prisoners

Answer

The implementation of a standard core day (SCD) was agreed for most public sector prisons in England and Wales and implementation started in June 2008. The SCD was implemented in an organised and co-ordinated way across a large number of prisons without increasing overall levels of disorder or significantly impacting on activity levels in the majority of prisons. For example, teaching and other learner contact is accommodated within the remaining four and a half days available. There are no ongoing central recording of time spent in prison by professional visitors providing religious and education activities, although a review of data collected three months either side of the SCD implementation date reported that 46 prisons had experienced a lower number of visits by chaplaincy volunteers—23 reported a higher number and nine reported no change—an overall decrease of 6 per cent in the total number of visits. The reduced level of visits may be directly attributable to prisons being unable to rearrange visits or volunteers being unable to change their visiting days. Seasonal variations may also have impacted. Table I shows the levels of purposeful activity achieved before and after implementation of the SCD.

Table 1—Purposeful Activity
	Average hours per prisoner per week
Financial Year	Religious activities	Education	Training	Work
2007-08	0.65	6.52	1.16	12.57
2008-09	0.65	6.51	1.24	12.14
2009-10	0.63	6.44	1.31	11.80
2010-11 Aug YTD	0.62	6.40	1.30	11.96

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

2228; 721 c184WA

Session

2010-12

Subjects

Employment Education Prisoners Prisons Ministers of religion Teachers Training Religious practice Visits

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk