Prisoners' Release: Curfews

(asked on 3rd July 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many prisoners subject to Home Detention Curfews were released before their Home Detention Curfew Eligibility Date in each of the last five years.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Keen of Elie
This question was answered on 17th July 2019

The following table shows the number of prisoners who were eligible for HDC, and how many and what proportion were released in each of the last five years. Because of the way in which data is recorded, the figures relating to the number eligible are higher than the true picture, as they include all offenders serving sentences of the right length, even though some do not meet the other eligibility criteria (see footnote 1).

2014

2015(3)

2016

2017

2018

Number eligible for release on HDC (1,2)

45,203

43,669

43,660

44,697

40,543

Number released on HDC

8,614

8,319

9,041

9,312

14,769

Percentage released

19%

19%

21%

21%

36%

(1) This is the number of offenders serving sentences of between 12 weeks and just under 4 years and therefore potentially eligible for release on Home Detention Curfew (HDC) in the relevant period. However, it includes offenders who are in fact statutorily ineligible for HDC, such as registered sex offenders or those with a previous recall for breach of curfew on HDC (prisoners not eligible for HDC for these reasons cannot be identified from the data that is held). Moreover, certain offenders are presumed unsuitable for HDC and will only be considered for release in exceptional circumstances.

(2) An offender may be eligible for release on HDC in more than one year. This is because an offender may become eligible for release on HDC in one year and remain in the prison population to be eligible for release as a new year begins.

(3) Figures for 2015 and earlier were produced using an older methodology than for the years 2016 to date.

Data on the number of prisoners refused HDC is not collated centrally and could not be obtained except at disproportionate cost.

A prisoner may be released on or after their HDC eligibility date but may not lawfully be released before the eligibility date; such a release would be counted as a “release in error”. HMPPS publish annual data on releases in error but this does not indicate whether the offender was released on HDC and this could not be established except at disproportionate cost. This data is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-hm-prison-and-probation-service-digest-2017-to-2018

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