Novus Welcomes New Ministry of Justice Appointments

New ministerial team can put rehabilitation at centre of government policy

Prison education provider Novus has welcomed the appointment of the new ministerial team at the Ministry of Justice following the General Election. Shabana Mahmood has been unveiled as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, while James Timpson, CEO of the Timpson Group, is the new Minister for Prisons.

Peter Cox, Managing Director of Novus, said: “We are delighted to welcome the new ministers to the Ministry of Justice, and we look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.

“The appointments offer a golden opportunity to put rehabilitation at the heart of government policy on justice. The new Secretary of State for Justice, Shabana Mahmood, has spoken repeatedly about the importance of reducing reoffending; prison education is proven to have a significant impact in achieving this. As a national provider working in more than 50 sites across England and Wales, Novus has a wealth of experience and insight into the transformational role education can play in supporting individuals to turn their lives around, and we look forward to supporting the new Government in ensuring that prison education can have the biggest possible impact.

“We are particularly heartened at the appointment of James Timpson, who has been a champion for recruiting former offenders for many years, and has a real insight into the importance of offering routes into employment to prisoners once they have been released. Novus works closely with employers across the country, ensuring that as many individuals as possible leave prison with the skills, experience and qualifications they need to find work. We have played a key role in enabling the some of the first cohort of prisoners to begin apprenticeships during their sentence, and we are keen to build on what we have learned in the early stages of this pioneering policy to open up opportunities to more prisoners.

“There is much more that can be done to support even more learners into work in the future, and we are keen to provide support to the new Government to ensure that it can reduce the massive £18 billion annual cost to taxpayers of reoffending.”