Written question asked by Paul Clark (Labour) on Monday, 22 July 2002, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 21 October 2002. It was answered by Malcolm Wicks (Labour) on Monday, 21 October 2002 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Dept for Work and Pensions

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what help he will give to offenders to find work as part of the resettlement process. (Failed OPQ).

Answer: Paul Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what help he will give to offenders to find work as part of the resettlement process. [73096] Malcolm Wicks: We offer ex-offenders a wide range of help to move into work, including early access to employment programmes such as New Deal and Work Based Learning for Adults. Last autumn we also introduced Freshstart, a £3 million initiative to improve the links between prisons and Jobcentres and ease the transition from custody into work. Earlier this year we introduced progress2work to offer individually tailored specialist support to help people find work or improve their prospects of doing so. The first stage of progress2work focused on unemployed people who are recovering from drug problems. Ex-prisoners referred by drug counselling teams are a priority target group for progress2work. Later this month we will begin piloting the extension of the progress2work approach to other groups facing particularly difficult barriers to work. This will include all ex-offenders.

Secondary information