Prisons across England and Wales are set to slash frontline spending on education courses by up to 50%, despite promises from Keir Starmer to improve “access to learning” in last year’s general election manifesto.
The budget for classroom courses at HMP Leicester will be cut by 46.5%, another men’s prison is cutting spending by 25%, while a women’s prison is cutting its provision in education by 26%, sources have confirmed.
In one prison, there will be a reduction in the number of basic English and maths courses, including cuts to the hours of a specialist teacher who helps illiterate prisoners to read.
Labour promised in 2024 to “work with prisons to improve offenders’ access to purposeful activity, such as learning”, acknowledging that “prison leavers are more likely to reoffend if they do not have the tools to move away from crime.”
The Prison Governors’ Association (PGA) told the Guardian that most prisons in England and Wales would have their education budgets cut in real terms by at least 5%.
Tom Wheatley, the president of the PGA, said: “These cuts to prison education budgets will have an immediate and direct impact on the ability of governors to provide a meaningful regime and purposeful activity for prisoners.”
The cuts could impede the government’s plan to introduce a Texas-style system of good behaviour credits, when prisoners can pass courses to move towards an earlier release, Wheatley said.
“This is happening at the same time as the government is proposing a move to an ‘earned progression model’ … These cuts are likely to reduce the opportunities for prisoners to earn progression,” he said.
The cuts are being introduced as the government rolls out new education contracts across prisons in England and Wales.
While the overall education budget has remained the same, the cost of course contracts has soared, governors claim.
Dame Sally Coates, who conducted a landmark independent review into prison education in 2016, said: “Prison education is already underfunded and to cut it even more seems a disaster. If we as a country prioritised education and training in prisons, there would be far less reoffending.”
Changes to prison education budgets are authorised by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). The Guardian has submitted freedom of information requests to find out more about how prisons will be affected but has been told that the MoJ does not hold data about the budgets of individual prisons.
James Timpson, the prisons minister, has repeatedly emphasised the importance of prison education and training.
In July, Lord Timpson wrote: “We know that purposeful activity can help to enable safe and decent prisons and have a transformative effect on reoffending rates … This is why the government committed to working with prisons to improve access to purposeful activity in its manifesto and is actively exploring the best approaches to do so.”
An MoJ spokesperson said the government had secured investment in new roles, career advice and improvements in digital systems for prisoners.
“This government inherited a prison system in crisis and is working at pace to fix it. This includes changing how prison education works so that it is more effective and so that we also focus resources on building prisoners’ vocational skills like construction, retail and hospitality, where there is demand for labour.
“The national budget for education services has not been reduced.”
