Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been released at their Sentence End Date in each of the last 10 years for which data is available.

Prisoners(1) released on their Sentence End Date (SED) each year, 2013 to 2022, in England and Wales

Year Releases

2013 1,854

2014 1,179

2015 680

2016 1,849

2017 2,068

2018 2,228

2019 1,871

2020 1,346

2021 1,219

2022 1,427

1. Prisoners released from determinate sentences only.

Note: In 2015 we made large-scale improvements to our data processes, therefore data for pre-2015 is not directly comparable.

Data sources and quality

The figures in this table 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.

Source: Prison NOMIS

PQ 195128 (Ministry of Justice; Data and Analysis (Directorate))

For majority of sentences, a prisoner is required to serve part of the sentence in custody, with a period served in the community subject to licence. A prisoner may, however, be released at the expiry of their sentence as a result being recalled to custody from licence following initial release, or if enough additional days at adjudication have been awarded to defer release until the end of the sentence. Also, standard determinate sentences imposed for certain terrorist/terrorist connected offences, require the offender to serve the sentence in full (where parole is not granted earlier).