Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 9 April 2001.
The right hon. Lady knows very well that in the first two years of our stewardship of the Prison Service, we spent an additional £120 million on prisons for which she did not budget. She also knows that throughout the past four years, we have spent more year on year on education and offending behaviour programmes than her Government ever did. She should also know that this Government are serious about prison reform, a task on which her Government successively failed to make any headway. The Conservatives talk about it; we do it.