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Home Office

Answer

Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of young offenders were (a) illiterate and (b) innumerate (i) at assessment on entry to young offenders institutions, (ii) 25 per cent. of the way through their custodial sentence, (iii) 50 per cent. of the way through their custodial sentence, (iv) 75 per cent. of the way through their custodial sentence and (v) on completion of their custodial sentence in the latest year for which statistics are available. [200261] Paul Goggins: [holding answer 29 November 2004]: For the period April 2002 to March 2003 the results of the basic skills assessment screening tests at male young offender establishments were as follows: 2002-03: Young offender establishments _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Percentage Number tested Below level 1 At level 1 Above level 1 Spelling 14,742 47.9 38.8 13.3 Punctuation 14,233 60.2 31.1 8.7 Reading 17,721 38.7 28.5 32.8 Numeracy 18,442 46.4 31.7 21.9 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Information regarding progression relative to the proportion of sentence served is not available; however, the number of achievements gained by juvenile and young offenders for the same period is as follows: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Number Entry Level 2,227 Level 1 2,673 Level 2 1,326 Total 6,226 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. For the period April 2004 to August 2004 information on the basic skills level at induction is available for juveniles only and is as follows: April to August 2004 Percentage _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Juvenile only Pre-Entry Entry 1 Entry 2 Entry 3 Level 1 Level 1 Female Literacy 1 9 14 34 31 11 Numeracy 13 2 29 37 18 2 Male Literacy 5 5 20 39 24 8 Numeracy 4 6 26 41 19 2 _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

200261; 428 c395-6W

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Education Prisons Standards Young offenders Literacy Numeracy

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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