Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2015 to Question 3688, what offences are included in the Violence against the person category.

Allocation to open prison is never automatic. Prisoners serving sentences for violent or other serious offences may be allocated to open prison towards the end of their sentence but only where they have successfully completed relevant offender behaviour work and are assessed as a low risk. Prisoners serving a determinate sentence must be within 2 years of release before they can be considered for allocation to an open prison, and those serving indeterminate sentences will only be transferred following a recommendation from the Parole Board. A prisoner in open conditions can be returned to the closed estate immediately should new risks be identified. Following a comprehensive review, the Government has tightened the eligibility for open prisons. All those located in open conditions have been rigorously risk assessed and categorised as being of low risk to the public.

The table below shows the specific offences for which offenders in open had been sentenced, within the category of ‘violence against the person’, as at 31 March 2015.

Table 1: Offences contained within the “Violence against the person” category.