The Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and
Skills (Mr. John Denham): On 7 February, I informed
Parliament that I had identified a long-established but
unjustifiable provision in the student support regulations that
allowed prisoners on full-time courses in higher education to
receive financial support in the form of loans and grants for
maintenance.
Following my statement, revised Education (Student Support)
Regulations came into effect on 28 February and prevent anyone
who is, or has been, a prisoner during the 2007–08 academic
year from receiving further payments of maintenance loans or
grants. We are working to ensure that, from the 2008–09
academic year, maintenance support for any student who has spent
part of a year in prison is reduced pro rata.
At my
request, the Student Loans Company and officials have now
identified and reviewed cases where maintenance payments were
made to prisoners. This investigation has shown that, in many of
the cases provisionally identified in my statement, the
individuals in question did not receive any student support
payments while in custody. Our assessment of the number of
prisoners who have received support, and the sums of money
involved, have therefore been revised downwards
significantly.
Based
on a search of the SLC's database using prison postcodes, and a
survey of prison governors, we have identified that 154
individual prisoners received some form of maintenance payment
while a full-time student since 1998. In total, these prisoners
received £570,000 in maintenance loans. They also received
£160,000 in maintenance grants. By comparison at the time that I
made my statement on 7 February, preliminary investigations
suggested that approximately 250 prisoners had received up to
£250,000 in maintenance grants since 1998. There is also
evidence of some maintenance payments made to prisoners between
1990 and 1998.
In
the current academic year, the review has identified 44 prisoners
who have received some form of maintenance payment while in
prison. All further maintenance payments to these individuals
have been stopped. Where appropriate payment of tuition fees to
higher education institutions have been reinstated.
The
review has shown that assessments for student support were
carried out in accordance with the rules that applied at the
time.
I
will be considering the future management of financial support
for offenders in higher education, based on recommendations from
my Department and the Ministry of Justice.
