Currently, only a quarter of those leaving prison have a job within six months, and efforts are being intensified to increase this number.

The prisons minister, Damian Hinds, is in broad agreement with a report from the Centre for Social Justice think tank calling for much greater use of the 50,000 people leaving prison each year to fill the over one million job vacancies in the UK.

The report recommends better education, digital technology, and earlier access to student loans for inmates, as well as wider access to vocational qualifications and more exposure to work through release on temporary license schemes.

Although there are concerns about the risk involved in employing prisoners, research shows that nine in 10 managers who employed ex-offenders found them to be motivated, reliable, and trustworthy.

The report suggests that getting more prisoners into work would cut crime by reducing reoffending and grow the economy.

“There are over a million vacancies in the UK. So, there has never been a better opportunity for businesses to unlock the potential in our prisons,” Mr Hinds writes in the foreword to the report. “Getting more prisoners into work really is a win-win — it will cut crime by reducing reoffending and grow our economy to the benefit of us all.”