Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders were released on temporary licence for Christmas Day in (a) 2022 and (b) 2023, broken down by each offence committed.

Data on the number of individuals recorded as temporarily released from prison on 25 December 2022, broken down by main offence category, has been published in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI 230910004) and may be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foi-releases-for-october-2023.

Requested data for Christmas 2023 forms a subset of data planned for release in the regular Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publication, and therefore the Department is not able to provide the requested information at this time.

Offenders released on temporary licence are subject to strict conditions and risk assessment. Any breaches can result in more time behind bars.