Second chances | KPMG 'turning lives around' with pledge to employ prison leavers

KPMG has become the first white collar British business to employ ex-offenders as part of a new government partnership.

The ‘Big Four’ professional services firm is backing Downing Street’s calls for Britain’s biggest organisations to recruit prison leavers, as part of a national campaign to reduce reoffending and grow the economy.

Having successfully employed their first cohort of prison leavers in a range of different roles, including technology development, the company is now working with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to encourage other big-name businesses to follow suit.

The MoJ says that the recruitment drive will not only grow the economy and help fill some of the estimated one million vacancies in the UK jobs market, but will also help secure employment to keeps former offenders on the straight and narrow and redress the £18 billion annual cost of reoffending.