Written question asked by Lord Maude of Horsham (Conservative) on Friday, 23 April 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 5 May 2004. It was answered by Paul Goggins (Labour) on Wednesday, 5 May 2004 on behalf of the Home Office.

Home Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what percentage of prisoners were assessed for basic literacy and numeracy in 2003-04; and what the rates were for each of the last 10 years. - Inc tables.

Answer: Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of prisoners were assessed for basic literacy and numeracy in 2003-04; and what the rates were for each of the last 10 years. [169093] Paul Goggins: All establishments provide an induction programme, screening and initial assessment of each offender's basic skills. We are able to provide figures from 2001, but do not hold data for the past 10 years. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Prisoners' basic skills assessments 2001-02 114,831 2002-03 118,800 2003-04 123,941 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. The number of sentenced prisoners received into prisons for the same period (not including recalls, non- criminals or fine defaulters) is: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Number 2001-02 91,978 2002-03 94,807 2003-04 192,247 1 Final year figures yet to be confirmed. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Information is not collected and held centrally for each individual prisoner. Accordingly it is not possible to express these figures as a proportion of annual throughput. Assessment figures would also include non- sentenced prisoners.

Secondary information