Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of offenders granted (a) early release, (b) temporary license and (c) home detention curfew over Christmas in each year since 2010.

Prisoners are not released early or on home detention curfew (HDC) in order to allow them to go home for Christmas. Prisoners who are eligible for HDC and meet all relevant criteria will be released on or after they reach the eligibility date, whenever it falls.

Where a prisoner is serving a sentence of 5 days’ imprisonment or more and their automatic release date falls on a weekend or bank holiday the Criminal Justice Act 1961 requires their release on the preceding working day so that there are appropriate services and support available when they are released.

The attached tables give data for the years 2010 to 2021 on the number of prisoners who were: released on HDC in the week including Christmas Day; or, released early due to the specific provisions of the 1961 Act; or, on temporary release on 25 December.