Peter Foster, managing director of the family-owned Fosters Bakery in Barnsley, in the north of England, has discovered an unusual answer to a familiar recruitment problem. The town is home to more than a dozen big bakeries, and workers were used to flitting from one job to another, making it hard to raise skill levels or productivity.

He found the solution behind bars. Invited by Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency, he visited nearby Lindholme prison where the governor wanted to equip inmates for life outside. Yorkshire Forward built a bakery there and Mr Foster agreed to take serving prisoners on day release, and those leaving prison, to work for him. Their discipline and loyalty are excellent, he says, and “I would rather have them paying taxes than living off them”.

Fosters is one of a growing band of companies in the UK that has turned to the prison population for staff, helped by a government drive to cut reoffending rates by finding ex-offenders long-term jobs rather than training opportunities.