Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were serving life sentences for second listed offences in prisons in England and Wales as of 7 November 2023; and how many of those individuals were sentenced (a) on or prior to 9 November 2000, (b) between 9 November 2000 and 4 April 2005 and (c) after 4 April 2005.

As of 30 September 2023, the number of people serving life sentences for second listed offences in prisons in England and Wales is 259. We are not providing data as at 7 November because of the restrictions of the Code of Practice for Statistics. The information requested [the number of offenders serving a life sentence for second listed offences as at 07 November] is a subset of the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly which we routinely publish. Figures relating to population in prison, releases and recall of offenders for October-December 2023 are planned for publication on 25 April 2024.

See table below for answer to question on sentencing.

Given the periods covered, the figures given up to 04 April 2005 relate to the automatic life sentence which was then replaced by Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) on 05 April 2005. The life sentence for second listed offence was introduced some years after 2005. As such, we have combined the automatic life sentence and the life sentence for second listed offence.