Prisoners' Release

(asked on 15th July 2021) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what they estimate to be the total number of recalled Imprisonment for Public Protection prisoners broken down by (1) gender, and (2) ethnicity; and how many years are left on their tariff in each case.


This question was answered on 29th July 2021

The Government is committed to the protection of the public and the effective management of offenders. By law, prisoners serving indeterminate sentences who have completed their tariff will be released only when the independent Parole Board concludes that the risk they present to the public is capable of being safely managed in the community under probation supervision.

The following two tables show the number of unreleased prisoners serving an IPP sentence at 31 March 2021, by gender, ethnicity and the number of years to their tariff expiry, in England and Wales. The total number of IPP prisoners recorded in these two tables is 1,784.

Table 1

Gender

Number (Row Total)

Less than 1 year

1 year to less than 2 years

2 year to less than 3 years

3 year to less than 4 years

4 year to less than 5 years

5 or more years

Tariff expired

Tariff unavailable

Male

1,761

24

22

13

5

6

7

1,682

2

Female

23

0

0

0

0

0

0

23

0

Table 2

Ethnicity

Number (Row Total)

Less than 1 year

1 year to less than 2 years

2 year to less than 3 years

3 year to less than 4 years

4 year to less than 5 years

5 or more years

Tariff expired

Tariff unavailable

Asian or Asian British

92

3

0

2

2

1

1

83

0

Black or Black British

229

7

5

3

1

1

4

208

0

Mixed

70

0

3

0

0

0

0

67

0

Other ethnic group

8

0

0

0

0

0

0

8

0

White

1,380

14

14

8

2

4

2

1,334

2

Unrecorded

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

Not stated

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

4

0

The following two tables show the number of recalled prisoners serving an IPP sentence at 31 March 2021, by gender and ethnicity, in England and Wales. All recalled IPP prisoners are post tariff as it is not possible to release an IPP prisoner prior to the expiry of their minimum tariff date. The total number of IPP prisoners recorded in these two tables is 1,350.

Table 3

Gender

Number

Male

1,327

Female

23

Table 4

Ethnicity

Number

Asian or Asian British

42

Black or Black British

161

Mixed

74

Other ethnic group/Not Stated

4

White

1,069

The table below shows the number of unreleased prisoners serving an IPP sentence at 31 March 2021, by security category and the number of years to their tariff expiry, in England and Wales. The total number of IPP prisoners recorded in the below table is 1,784.

Table 5

Security Category

Number (Row Total)

Less than 1 year

1 year to less than 2 years

2 year to less than 3 years

3 year to less than 4 years

4 year to less than 5 years

5 or more years

Tariff expired

Tariff unavailable

A

17

1

1

0

0

1

0

14

0

B

323

2

1

3

1

2

5

309

0

C

871

7

13

9

4

4

1

831

2

D

548

14

7

1

0

0

0

526

0

Females (open and closed)

23

0

0

0

0

0

0

23

0

Others

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

0

A prisoner’s individual needs in relation to offending behaviour and resettlement, or their individual circumstances (such as medical requirements) may result in an individual being held in a prison of a higher category than their own approved category. Prisoners will not be allocated to a prison of a lower security category than the security category assigned to them personally.

Notes for all figures:

  1. These figures have been drawn from the Public Protection Unit Database and Prison-NOMIS 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.
  2. Tariff refers to the length of time between date of sentence and tariff expiry date.
Reticulating Splines