| answer text |
<p> </p><p>A life sentence is mandatory on conviction for murder. Under a life sentence,
the court determines the minimum period to be served in prison for the purposes of
punishment and deterrence. Once that period has been served it is for the Parole Board
to determine if and when the offender may be released from prison on life licence
and subject to recall for the rest of their life. Public protection is the priority
and the Board will take into account a range of factors when assessing whether an
offender’s risk is reduced sufficiently for him or her to be released.</p><p> </p><p>In
order to provide data relating to released life sentenced offenders in each year since
2004 would involve manually examining prisoner records.</p><p>Reliable centrally held
electronic information on life sentenced prisoners released from custody is only available
from 2011 onwards. Prior to this date the required individual record information was
only kept in paper files for offender management purposes. It would therefore be at
a disproportionate cost to search through these files to identify those prisoners
sentenced for murder who were released after serving a minimum period of imprisonment
imposed by the courts prior to 2011.</p><p> </p><p>The latest available information
on the number of released life sentenced offenders is publicly available under “Offender
Management” at the following website address:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2014"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2014</a></p>
|
|
