Prison Sentences
(asked on 2nd May 2019) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners sentenced under an imprisonment for public protection sentence remain in custody.
The information you ask for is available in the public domain; however, I have provided it below for ease of reference.
As of 31 March 2019, there were 2,403 unreleased prisoners in custody serving Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences. In addition, a further 1,063 prisoners were serving an IPP sentence following recall from the community.
The table below shows the tariff-expired, unreleased population of prisoners serving IPP sentences by original tariff length and time over tariff, as at 31 March 2019.
Time over tariff | Original Tariff length | Total | ||||
Less than 2 years | 2 years to less than or equal to 4 years | Greater than 4 years to less than or equal to 6 years | Greater than 6 years to less than or equal to 10 years | Greater than 10 years | ||
Less than 1 year | 0 | 0 | 18 | 97 | 3 | 118 |
From 1 year to less than 2 years | 0 | 0 | 58 | 80 | 1 | 139 |
From 2 years to less than 3 years | 0 | 12 | 86 | 49 | 1 | 148 |
From 3 years to less than 4 years | 0 | 61 | 82 | 38 | 0 | 181 |
From 4 years to less than 5 years | 10 | 103 | 66 | 26 | 0 | 205 |
From 5 years to less than 6 years | 31 | 131 | 70 | 13 | 0 | 245 |
From 6 years to less than 7 years | 28 | 134 | 59 | 8 | 0 | 229 |
From 7 years to less than 8 years | 32 | 145 | 54 | 1 | 0 | 232 |
From 8 years to less than 9 years | 53 | 185 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 271 |
From 9 years to less than 10 years | 53 | 136 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 190 |
10 years or more | 168 | 71 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 240 |
Total | 375 | 978 | 527 | 312 | 6 | 2,198 |
As with any large-scale recording system, administrative IT systems are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
It is for the independent Parole Board to review the detention of those prisoners serving an IPP sentence who have completed their tariff period. The Board will direct the release of these prisoners only if it is satisfied that the levels of risk posed to the general public are reduced enough that the National Probation Service and its partner agencies can safely manage them in the community under supervision.
Whilst HM Prison and Probation Service is focused on giving all prisoners serving IPP sentences opportunities to progress towards release, public protection must remain our priority.