Member

I have softened the amendment that I tabled in Committee. It would no longer be mandatory for every custodial sentence, as originally envisaged. It would allow the court that is sentencing an offender to require participation in education, skills, training, work or other purposeful activity, but it would also allow the Government to make regulations on how far this should apply. It also provides for annual reporting on prisoner participation and, crucially, on the availability of such activities—an addition at the suggestion of the Prison Reform Trust. Only with that feedback loop will we have the driver for change that we all want.