Committee publication · Report · 14 November 2025 · HC 469
7th Report – Ending the cycle of reoffending – part one: rehabilitation in prisons
From: Justice Committee
Inquiry: Rehabilitation and resettlement: ending the cycle of reoffending
Government response deadline: 14 January 2026
Summary
The Justice Committee's seventh report examines rehabilitation in English and Welsh prisons, finding that current conditions are unsuitable for reform. It documents severe overcrowding (97.31% capacity), staffing shortages (11.6% leaving rate among prison officers), crumbling infrastructure with a £1.8 billion maintenance backlog, and systemic failures in education, health services, and regime delivery. The Committee concludes 80% of offending is reoffending, with rehabilitation deprioritised amid capacity pressures.
Key findings
- Prison population at 86,888 (97.31% capacity) with remand prisoners at record 20% of population; overcrowding drives arbitrary transfers disrupting sentence progression and family contact
- 50% of prisoners not in education or work; two-thirds not in education or work six months after release; 80% of English and Welsh offending is reoffending
- Staff recruitment and retention severely deficient: 11.6% leaving rate and 8% resignation rate among band 3–5 officers in 12 months to June 2025; only 8 weeks initial training provided
- Prison estate in disrepair with £1.8 billion maintenance backlog; many prisoners in cells with unscreened toilets; heating, ventilation, flooding create intolerable conditions
- Remand prisoners (20% of population, highest in 50 years) excluded from education and rehabilitative programmes, often released direct from court without support; children in custody routinely fail to meet 15-hour weekly education minimum
Recommendations
- Government must set out in next annual prison capacity statement how it will ensure rehabilitation is not compromised, including measures for purposeful activity access, family relationships, and placement progression
- Staff must never be promoted without proper training for the new role; all staff from officer to Governor must receive training on recruitment, promotion, and minimum annually; roll out within 12 months
- HMPPS must publish transparent quarterly data on vacancy rates by staff role, retirements eligible in next five years, and skilled worker visa holders
- Government must produce 15-year comprehensive public workforce plan for prison system (including women's and children's estate) modelled on NHS Long Term Workforce Plan; planning process commence within three months
- Governors must have ultimate recruitment decision authority; HMPPS must amend process to ensure all frontline staff undergo mandatory face-to-face interviews led by Governors or senior leadership
- Government must clarify rationale for reported 50% real-term cuts to prison education budgets and commit to sustained funding
- Government must provide clear breakdown of how funding will address £1.8 billion maintenance backlog; ensure future investment targets improving prison conditions with rehabilitative activities in mind
- Time out of cell must be formalised, standardised, and data published going forward; Government must ensure compliance with statutory minimum
- Remand prisoners should have access to all parts of prison regime, should they choose to participate, including education and rehabilitative programmes
- Government must produce clear plan for meeting health and wellbeing needs of women currently in custody given acute and complex health needs not being met
Tone
CriticalTopics
rehabilitationprison-overcrowdingstaffingeducationmental-health
Key actors
Andy Slaughter, Charlie Taylor, Adrian Usher, Lord Timpson OBE DL, Elisabeth Davies, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), Ministry of Justice, Howard League for Penal Reform
Notable line
“Is rehabilitation harder in full prisons? Yes, 100%, because we want people to be in purposeful activity, education, have time to go to the gym, have visits, go to the library …”
Key Quotes
“We were in HMP Elmley last month. We found that prisoners who were due to get out the next day were being shipped out of Elmley to Rochester prison simply to make space for other prisoners to come in that day.”
“Is rehabilitation harder in full prisons? Yes, 100%, because we want people to be in purposeful activity, education, have time to go to the gym, have visits, go to the library, and all the things they need to do that will help them when they get out to stay out.”
“… was 'stunned' at the fact that prison staff do not get training upon promotion.”
“"you get given the job of governor and your name appears on the door, but you do not get any training in how to do that job.”
“… anecdotal evidence suggests there has been a higher rate of recall from SDS40, indicating that those released were not sufficiently rehabilitated in prison.”
“Capacity management has become the defining success factor of a prison in place of the enablement of improved outcomes for individuals [ … ] Category Cs are …”
“"ambitions for prisons to be places of rehabilitation in a context of gross overcrowding and capacity crisis are extremely 16 Ministry of Justice …”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗