Committee publication · Special Report · 30 January 2026 · HC 1639
4th Special Report - Ending the cycle of reoffending – part one: rehabilitation in prisons: Government Response
From: Justice Committee
Inquiry: Rehabilitation and resettlement: ending the cycle of reoffending
Summary
This government response to the Justice Committee's November 2025 report on prison rehabilitation accepts ten of twenty-six recommendations, partially accepts twelve, and rejects four. The government emphasises its focus on rehabilitation through the Earned Progression Model, sentencing reforms, and workforce development, while defending its position on data transparency, time-out-of-cell metrics, and Governor autonomy levels for public sector prisons.
Key findings
- Government accepted recommendations on Governor autonomy review, Release on Temporary Licence expansion, contract management training, and the Earned Progression Model implementation.
- Government rejected recommendations requiring expanded Annual Prison Capacity Statements to include rehabilitation measures, detailed workforce visa data publication, and formalised time-out-of-cell data reporting.
- Government partially accepted twelve recommendations, including those on staff training timelines (rejecting 12-month rollout but accepting capability packages in business-as-usual), Governor recruitment involvement (testing enhanced processes), and remand prisoner regime access (committing to a 3-year plan).
- Government maintaining £1.2bn ring-fenced annually for prison expansion (2026–29) with c.£300m for maintenance in 2025/26, though prison maintenance itself remains non-ring-fenced.
- Enable Programme establishing National Talent Committee, Governor induction, and Prisons Training Oversight Function to address leadership pipeline and capability development across all prison staff grades.
Government position
The government partially accepts the Committee's recommendations overall. It accepts the principle of rehabilitation-focused governance and commits to initiatives like the Earned Progression Model, Release on Temporary Licence expansion, and comprehensive Governor training on contract management. However, it rejects expanding the Annual Capacity Statement to include rehabilitation metrics, arguing this exceeds the statement's intended remit; it defends against publishing detailed skilled worker visa data as cost-prohibitive; and it rejects mandatory time-out-of-cell reporting, preferring instead to measure purposeful activity. On workforce planning, the government accepts the concept but declines the 12-month delivery timeline, citing resource constraints. Regarding Governor autonomy, it accepts increased involvement in recruitment with safeguards but only partially accepts equalising public-sector Governor autonomy with private-sector, citing civil service compliance and contractual constraints. Overall stance: accepts core rehabilitation agenda but resists transparency expansions and resource-intensive delivery timelines.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Lord Timpson (Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending), Andy Slaughter (Justice Committee Chair), HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), Ministry of Justice, Justice Committee, NHS England, Department for Health and Social Care
Notable line
“… in prison until the end of their sentence. 56. Under our model, release at the earlier point is theirs to lose; if they do not comply …”
Key Quotes
“Despite inheriting a prison system on the brink of collapse, we have placed rehabilitation at the core of our work and are taking a range of steps to embed this further across the system.”
“Under our model, release at the earlier point is theirs to lose; if they do not comply, they can be locked up for longer—potentially up to the end of their sentence.”
“Rehabilitation is at the core of our purpose as a department. By delivering it effectively, we are fulfilling our duty to the public by doing our utmost to prevent future victims.”
“… than Governors within HMPPS) must operate within a range of guidelines including compliance with commercial policy, rules surrounding the use of public money and compliance with Civil Service Recruitment rules.”
“We maintain transparency on workforce data particularly through two regular publications: HMPPS's Workforce Quarterly Statistics 2 and the HMPPS annual Staff Equalities Report 3 .”
“… we think it is more important to understand the time being spent by prisoners in rehabilitative activities. Therefore, we have decided that the more important metric to measure is the amount of time prisoners spend in purposeful activity.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗