Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many prisoners have been granted compassionate release from prison on the grounds of ill-health in each of the last five years.
The numbers of prisoners who were granted permanent early release on compassionate grounds due to ill-health in each of the last five calendar years is shown in the following tables. The data is split between prisoners serving determinate and indeterminate sentences, as there are separate policies involved.
Determinate Sentenced Prisoners |
| Indeterminate Sentenced Prisoners | ||
Year | Number released |
| Year | Number released |
2015 | 9 |
| 2015 | 0 |
2016 | 10 |
| 2016 | 2 |
2017 | 3 |
| 2017 | 2 |
2018 | 15 |
| 2018 | 1 |
2019 | 10 |
| 2019 | 1 |
Total | 47 |
| Total | 6 |
Under either policy, release is granted only in exceptional circumstances, the primary consideration being that it will not put the public at risk.
These figures have been drawn from the Public Protection Unit Database held by Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service. As with any large scale recording systems, the figures are subject to possible errors with data migration and processing.