Ms Caron McCaffrey:

If we compare that with education, in February 2022, 45% of the prison population were engaging in education. Within a prison, you may go to school for the day or you may go to work and training. In some cases, you may go to school in the morning and to work and training in the afternoon. Obviously, from a Prison Service perspective, we encourage as many prisoners as we can to participate in work, training and education. There has been an impact because of Covid, unfortunately, but we are now back at a stage where our workshops and education facilities are operating at maximum capacity. One of the core functions of the Prison Service is to help people gain an educational qualification or a work training qualification so that they are much more employable on release.