Prison Sentences
(asked on 10th January 2023) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people serving (1) a sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection, and (2) a life sentence, were recalled to custody whilst on licence in the community in each year since 2009.
Every offender in the community on licence is liable to be recalled to prison, if they fail to comply with their licence conditions in such a way as to indicate the risk they present is no longer capable of being effectively managed in the community, so as to protect the public.
The following table shows the number of people serving (1) a sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP), and (2) a life sentence, that were recalled to custody whilst on licence in the community in each year, from 31 December 2009 to 31 December 2021.
Year | Number of IPP offenders recalled (Bracketed figure is recalls as a percentage of total cases on licence) | Total number of IPP offenders on licence | Number of Life sentenced offenders recalled (Bracketed figure is recalls as a percentage of total cases on licence) | Total number of Life sentenced offenders on licence |
2010 (1) | 34 | -- | 95 | -- |
2011 | 60 (14%) | 429 | 118 (6%) | 1,896 |
2012 | 123 (14%) | 857 | 124 (6%) | 2,242 |
2013 | 240 (19%) | 1,231 | 174 (11%) | 1,656 |
2014 | 332 (23%) | 1,445 | 201 (9%) | 2,220 |
2015 | 363 (20%) | 1,850 | 212 (9%) | 2,410 |
2016 (1) | 482 | -- | 212 | -- |
2017 | 507 (19%) | 2,666 | 222 (7%) | 2,980 |
2018 | 637 (22%) | 2,935 | 288 (9%) | 3,256 |
2019 | 710 (23%) | 3,030 | 350 (9%) | 4,060 |
2020 | 639 (20%) | 3,125 | 290 (7%) | 4,361 |
2021 | 632 (20%) | 3,241 | 340 (8%) | 4,522 |
Notes:
- Due to a problem with the archived database, figures for 2010 and 2016 are unavailable.
- The Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence was introduced in 2005 as an indeterminate sentence targeted at serious offenders who, although they were thought to pose an ongoing risk to public safety, did not merit a life sentence. IPP sentences were abolished in 2012 by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act.
- Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that this data has been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by HM Prison & Probation Service. Consequently, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.