Huw asked the Justice Secretary as to what steps the Government are taking to ensure prisoners work and earn while serving sentences, you can view the question here: https://goo.gl/rb8fco and the read the transcript below: 

Huw Merriman MP

What steps the Government are taking to ensure that prisoners work and earn while they serve their sentences.

The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Elizabeth Truss)

We are launching new performance metrics that will measure not only the amount of work taking place in prisons but the percentage of prisoners who secure employment on release, and we will use those measurements to hold governors to account. We are also creating new apprenticeships in areas where there are skill shortages, such as construction, retail, catering, logistics and digital, so that prisoners can go into relevant roles.

Huw Merriman MP

We know that paid work transforms lives. Rather than provide purely menial work or training, will the Lord Chancellor require prisoners to pay their way via skilled employment, which can continue when their sentences end?

The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Elizabeth Truss)

My hon. Friend is correct. We are taking an outside-in approach: we are finding employers who have jobs to offer on the outside, and they then start to deliver training on the inside, so that the individual goes straight into an apprenticeship or employment on release. We already have a very successful scheme involving Land Securities and Halfords, and we are building up the number of employers that are part of that arrangement.