Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people currently serving Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences, whether in prison or on licence in the community, have served more than (1) 0, (2) 5, (3) 10, or (4) 15 years over their original tariff; and what percentage of people serving IPPs this represents in each case.

Figures on the number of unreleased IPP prisoners, broken down by time over tariff, are published in Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) in Table 1.Q.18 here: prison-population-31-Dec-2024.ods. The data has also been provided with this response by separate attachment for ease.

Table 1 shows the number of post-tariff unreleased prisoners serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence, broken down by time over tariff; as at 31 December 2024, in England & Wales. The bandings for these data are aligned to published data.

Table 2 shows the number of offenders serving an IPP sentence on licence in the community, broken down by the number of years since their tariff expiry, as at 30 September 2024, in England and Wales(1). The bandings for these data are also aligned to published data.

It is right that the IPP sentence was abolished, and this Government is determined that those serving the sentence get all the support and opportunities they need to make further progress towards a safe and sustainable release.

On 15 November 2024, the Government published the updated IPP Action Plan, which puts a stronger emphasis on effective frontline delivery in our prisons. It will ensure that prisoners serving IPP sentences have robust and effective sentence plans, which they are actively engaging with, and that they are in the correct prison to access the right interventions and rehabilitative services.

The IPP Action Plan and the commitment to deliver it have contributed to the overall reduction in the IPP population. The unreleased prison population fell from 1,227 in December 2023, to 1,045 in December 2024.

The Government also acted swiftly to commence the IPP measures in the Victims and Prisoners Act, which led to the automatic termination of licence for 1,742 cases on 1 November 2024. We also commenced the new power to re-release recalled IPP offenders executively through Risk Assessed Recall Review (RARR).