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The prisons minister has defended the funding of education courses for prisoners in the face of criticism from fellow Conservative MPs.
Last week Tory MP Priti Patel said figures that showed 1,609 prisoners in England and Wales had registered to start an Open University course meant criminals had "gold-plated rights" at the expense of their victims.
She told the Daily Mail: "The public will be outraged to see their hard-earned taxes funding degrees for prisoners while most people have to pay their own way through university by taking out loans."
Speaking in the Commons this afternoon shadow justice minister Helen Goodman asked prisons minister Crispin Blunt whether he agreed with Patel.
Blunt said Labour had spent "vast amounts of money" while in office but had achieved "precious little" in the way of reducing reoffending.
He told MPs it was important that the "pathway of the offender through custody system" assisted them in getting work on the outside in order to cut reoffending.
Blunt said the government would put in place a process that would mean people leaving prisons would be "better equipped".
In July last year the government announced it would conduct a review into offender education to ensure prisoners have a better chance of getting a job once they are released.
Blunt was also challenged by Conservative backbencher Philip Davies over the proportion of convicted criminals who were sent to prison.
Davies urged ministers to "avoid the siren voices on the Liberal Democrat benches and perhaps in his own department" and to make sure "more people are sent to prison".
But Blunt said the government would focus on "what works".
"We want to make sure there are fewer victims of crime in future," he told the Shipley MP.
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