Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the average time those currently serving mandatory life sentences will spend in prison.

Sentencing is entirely a matter for our independent judiciary. Release from mandatory life sentences is determined by the Parole Board, when the Board is satisfied that detaining the offender is no longer necessary for the protection of the public.

While we do not have an estimate of the average time those currently in prison on mandatory life sentences will serve, we do publish average time served, based on release data, on an annual basis. Table below.

(1) Due to improvements in IT systems, the 2015 prison admissions data is now taken from a different source and, for statistical reporting purposes only, are produced using a different method. The 2015 figures from both the old and new systems have been presented to aid comparison.