Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2015 to Question 3652, how many of the offenders released for Christmas were (a) male and (b) female.

Where there is a legitimate reason for a prisoner to be absent from prison, whether for resettlement, medical or other purpose, they may be released at the appropriate time, subject to risk assessment.

The main purpose of release on temporary licence (ROTL) is to facilitate the prisoner’s rehabilitation, to encourage them to take responsibility for their actions and take control of their lives in a socially acceptable way. Consideration will therefore be given to allowing prisoners nearing their release date to take ROTL to fit in with family celebrations and religious holidays of particular significance, including Christmas, where this has been identified as in line with the aims of the resettlement plan. All temporary release is subject to rigorous risk assessment, including assessment of the impact of release on any victims. Release will be refused where there is an unacceptable risk of breach in the particular case.

Over the past 18 months, we have overhauled the temporary release provisions and, in 2014, instances of ROTL fell by 14%, the number of prisoners taking ROTL fell 22% and there was a 39% fall in the number of temporary release failures.

Of the 1,347 offenders on temporary release on 25 December 2014, 1,251 were men, 96 were women. These figures 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.