Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people serving (a) fixed-term (b) life and (c) indeterminate sentences who had been granted parole by the Parole Board were recalled in each year since 2004-05.

The breakdown of the number of people recalled following parole release by the Parole Board:

(1) The figures provided are for offenders recalled in each full year from 2010 to 2016 whose first releases were directed by the Parole Board. Information datasets held by the department do not record the data in this format prior to 2010. The figures may include offenders recalled more than once across multiple years but not within years. The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. Recall reasons do not sum to the total number of recalls as more than one reason can be recorded against each recall

(2) 2012 onwards saw a significant increase in the number of IPP recalls. This reflects a steady increase in IPP releases from 97 in 2010 to 576 in 2016; it follows that the more IPP releases we see, it is likely that larger numbers will be recalled to custody.

Public protection is our priority and offenders on licence must comply with a strict set of conditions. If any offender breaches his licence conditions, he is liable to be recalled immediately to prison.

As more offenders are reaching their minimum tariff dates, the number of first-time IPP releases continues to rise year on year, and there are consequently ever greater numbers of offenders on an IPP licence in the community. Correspondingly, and as is to be expected, the number of offenders on an IPP licence who are recalled to custody also continues to rise.

No changes have been made to the IPP release test, and the independent Parole Board will continue to assess rigorously all tariff-expired IPP prisoners, in order as to determine they are safe to be released.