Olympic jobs lined up for ex-prisoners

Under the plans, which are being prepared by ministers and Games organisers, convicts will be taught skills in key areas such as construction, hospitality and event management.

Others will be trained to work in transport, recycling and waste management, while the scheme will also apply to offenders given community punishments who are looking for paid employment.

Ministers insist that potential recruits will be carefully vetted to ensure there is no risk to the public and believe the idea will provide significant benefits for London.

The principal aim is to reduce re-offending among the 400 prisoners per week who are released to live in the capital - and save money lost through the cost of crime - by ensuring they can move rapidly into work after ending their jail term. The other objective is to help guarantee there are enough trained staff available to fill the thousands of new posts that will be created over the coming years as work on the Olympic site accelerates in the run-up to 2012.

Further details of the plans are due to be announced over the coming months, but justice minister David Hanson confirmed that efforts were under way to ensure that ex-offenders were given work on the main Olympic site.

Nigel Austen, an assistant chief officer for London Probation, whose organisation supervises ex-offenders, said there would be an immediate benefit from a reduced welfare bill as well as savings on the cost of crime, which was "phenomenal", particularly for those in custody.

Mr Austen added: "Then there is also the general benefit to social cohesion - it makes for a much safer society because offenders in work are far less likely to offend - and less damage to families and children.

"So it is a mixture between some fairly prosaic, but important, cost savings and the long-term benefits to society."

The Olympic jobs will form part of a bid by probation officers to get 2,300 ex-offenders in the capital back into work each year and to reduce the re-offending rate, which in London stands at 74 per cent for inmates jailed for 12months or less.

Among the skills that convicts will be taught are personal presentation, communication, problem-solving, following orders, literacy, numeracy and time-keeping.

Up to 9,000 workers are expected to be needed at the peak of construction on the Olympic site, and thousands more will be needed once the facilities are built to cater for spectators, athletes and officials.