Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, in each of the last five years, how many people who were serving a life sentence and have been released on licence have had their licence conditions suspended before the 10 year anniversary of their release date; and how many such people have been (1) convicted of a further serious offence, (2) convicted of more than one serious offence, and (3) recalled to custody, between the suspension of the licence conditions and the 10 year anniversary of their release date.

The policy on the suspension of the supervision requirements of the licence for those serving life and Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences was amended in November 2020. The changes made were to ensure consistency and enhance public protection, having regard to the fact that those serving such sentences had committed serious offences – including those serving a mandatory life sentence for murder. The changes to the policy ensure that, unless there are exceptional circumstances, all those serving a life sentence must have spent a period of 10 continuous years on licence in the community before suspension of supervision can be considered. For those subject to IPP, a period of five continuous years is required before suspension of supervision can be considered. Previously, for both life and IPP sentenced offenders, this was either four years or 10 years depending on certain factors relating to the offence and notoriety.

The information needed to provide a comprehensive answer to each question could be acquired only at disproportionate cost as central records are not kept in a way that they can be filtered by the required fields to obtain the information.

The Probation Serious Further Offence (SFO) Review Procedures under Probation Instruction 2018 06 (amended November 2020) requires a rigorous review to be produced in every case where an offender under current statutory probation supervision is charged with a qualifying SFO. The Probation Instruction does allow for Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) to review cases on a discretionary basis, including where an offender serving an indeterminate sentence has had the supervision requirements of the life licence suspended. I can, however, confirm that the National SFO Team in HMPPS has not been notified of any cases which have resulted in an offender being convicted of a qualifying SFO in the period between the suspension of their supervision and the 10 year point following release for life sentences, or the 5 year point following release for IPP sentences, in any of the past five years.