Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in what proportion of (a) men's and (b) women's prisons are prisoners eligible for release on temporary licence.

I attach a list of each of the prisons from which prisoners have been released on temporary licence (ROTL) in the last 5 years.

Eligibility for ROTL primarily depends upon the assessment of the prisoner in question rather than the classification of the establishment in which they are currently detained. So, whilst a Category A prisoner cannot have ROTL and Category B prisoners can take it only in exceptional circumstances, lower category prisoners who are eligible to be considered for ROTL are held in category B and in some category A prisons. The key test is whether the prisoner in question is eligible to be considered, has a legitimate purpose for temporary releases linked to the sentence plan, and passes the rigorous risk assessment required.

Since 2013 when the process was revised there has been a 39% drop in the number of temporary release failures. This is the lowest failure rate since 2002, and the absconding rate has reached record lows under this and the Coalition government.