Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders serving life sentences for murder that were released on licence did not commit another offence in each year since 2007.

The decision to direct the release of a prisoner serving a mandatory life sentence for murder, once the prisoner has completed the minimum term of imprisonment (the tariff) set by the Court, is by law solely a matter for the independent Parole Board. The Board will direct the prisoner’s release on life licence where it assesses that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that the prisoner remain detained in custody. In making its assessment, the Parole Board has regard to a dossier of evidence about the prisoner’s current risk, including reports from a probation offender manager and a prison offender supervisor.

The number of prisoners serving a mandatory life sentence for murder whom the Parole Board has released in each year since 2007 is set out in the table below. The Ministry of Justice publishes these tables as part of the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publication. This is available online at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly

The Ministry of Justice is also able to provide information about the number of offenders who were convicted of a murder while on life licence for a previous murder, by matching data held about Serious Further Offences (SFOs)* with the data on releases. However, the Department is not able to provide data about offences for violence against the person or other offences without incurring disproportionate costs, because it is not possible to match release data with data held on the Police National Computer (PNC) without a large manual checking exercise. For the same reason, we cannot provide information about the number of offenders who did not commit further offences following release on life licence.

Offenders Released from a Life Sentence for Murder who went on to Commit another Murder while on Life Licence *

SFOs are rare. Fewer than 0.5% of offenders under statutory supervision are charged with serious further offences

*Data is only held on SFOs committed in or after 2009