By Eniola Amadu
Prisons across England and Wales are facing significant cuts to their classroom education budgets, despite Labour’s election promise last year to expand learning opportunities for offenders.
Sources have confirmed that education funding at HMP Leicester will be reduced by 46.5%, with other prisons implementing cuts ranging from 25% to 26%.
In some cases, basic literacy and numeracy courses are being scaled back, including reductions to the hours of specialist teachers who support prisoners with reading difficulties.
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The Prison Governors’ Association (PGA) said all prisons in England and Wales will see their education budgets reduced in real terms by at least 5%.
Its president, Tom Wheatley, warned the reductions would have a “direct impact” on governors’ ability to provide meaningful activities for inmates.
He also said the cuts could undermine government plans to introduce a U.S.-style good behaviour credits system, which would allow prisoners to earn early release by completing courses.
“This is happening at the same time as the government is proposing a move to an ‘earned progression model’,” Wheatley said. “These cuts are likely to reduce the opportunities for prisoners to earn progression.”
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has rolled out new education contracts across prisons, which governors argue have become more costly despite the overall education budget remaining unchanged.
The MoJ, however, has said the national budget for education services has not been reduced.
Dame Sally Coates, who led a landmark 2016 review into prison education, described the move as a “disaster,” arguing that further underfunding would worsen reoffending rates.
“If we as a country prioritised education and training in prisons, there would be far less reoffending,” she said.
The government has said it is investing in digital services, new advisory roles, and vocational training in fields such as construction, retail, and hospitality to better prepare offenders for employment after release.
Lord Timpson, the prisons minister, has previously emphasised the role of purposeful activity in improving safety and reducing reoffending.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “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.”
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Freedom of information requests submitted by the Guardian revealed the MoJ does not hold detailed data on individual prison education budgets, leaving uncertainty about the full scale of reductions across the system.
