Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people serving a life sentence had their first parole hearing on or after tariff expiry; and, for each year since 2009, how many of these were (1) directed for release, or (2) not directed for release, following the hearing.

By law any prisoner serving a life sentence who has completed the minimum term (tariff) set by the Court at the point of sentence is eligible to be considered for release, but will actually be released only when the Parole Board concludes that it is no longer necessary on the grounds of public protection for them to remain confined.

The total number of prisoners serving a life sentence that had their first parole hearing on or after tariff expiry; and were (1) directed for release, or (2) not directed for release, following the hearing, is shown in the following table;

*Records from before 2010 could not be located using administrative systems.

Notes:

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.