Asked by: David Winnick (Labour - Walsall North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when her Department plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Walsall North of 15 August 2016 to the Chief Executive, National Offender Management Service on a constituency case.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
A response to your letter of 15 August will be sent to you on or before 19 September.
Asked by: David Winnick (Labour - Walsall North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to tackle prisoners being radicalised by religious extremism; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Selous
We are alert to the risks posed by individuals who may wish to radicalise others, and we are committed to tackling radicalisation in prisons as an important element of our responsibility to protect the public and reduce re-offending.
NOMS has in place a wide-ranging programme of work to identify and manage the risks of extremism and radicalisation amongst offenders, which includes intelligence management and sharing, staff training and offender management and interventions.
NOMS contributes to the cross-Government Counter Terrorism Strategy CONTEST, and works with Law Enforcement Agency partners and alongside other Departments to manage the threat posed.
Asked by: David Winnick (Labour - Walsall North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people sentenced to life for murder in each year since 2004 were released from prison at the time of the minimum period imposed by the courts.
Answered by Mike Penning
A life sentence is mandatory on conviction for murder. Under a life sentence, the court determines the minimum period to be served in prison for the purposes of punishment and deterrence. Once that period has been served it is for the Parole Board to determine if and when the offender may be released from prison on life licence and subject to recall for the rest of their life. Public protection is the priority and the Board will take into account a range of factors when assessing whether an offender’s risk is reduced sufficiently for him or her to be released.
In order to provide data relating to released life sentenced offenders in each year since 2004 would involve manually examining prisoner records.
Reliable centrally held electronic information on life sentenced prisoners released from custody is only available from 2011 onwards. Prior to this date the required individual record information was only kept in paper files for offender management purposes. It would therefore be at a disproportionate cost to search through these files to identify those prisoners sentenced for murder who were released after serving a minimum period of imprisonment imposed by the courts prior to 2011.
The latest available information on the number of released life sentenced offenders is publicly available under “Offender Management” at the following website address: