Prisoners' Release: Health

(asked on 11th November 2020) - View Source

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.


Answered by
Baroness Scott of Bybrook Portrait
Baroness Scott of Bybrook
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This question was answered on 25th November 2020

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.

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