Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 24 October 2016 to Question 48562, what the sentence length of each of the 61 people convicted of murder was; and at what point in that sentence those people were released on temporary licence during Christmas 2015.

In 60 of the cases mentioned in the reply to Question 48562, the offender is serving a sentence of life imprisonment, which means they must serve a minimum period, or tariff, in prison and may be released on life licence on or after the expiry of the tariff, only where the Parole Board assesses that it is safe to do so. In 36 of these cases the offender was beyond the tariff expiry date before being temporarily released last Christmas. In 24 cases the release took place within a 24 month period leading up to the tariff expiry date. Allowing temporary release before tariff expiry in suitable cases where the offender is making good progress ensures that the offender can be prepared for release when this is considered by the Parole Board. In the remaining case the offender was convicted and given a determinate sentence in another jurisdiction. He was subsequently repatriated to serve the sentence in the UK and his temporary release at Christmas 2015 took place 5 months before his conditional release date.