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<p> </p><p> </p><p>Release on temporary licence is the process where, towards the
end of his or her sentence, an offender can be released from a prison establishment
on a temporary basis. This release has to be for a specific purpose, which may include
training, employment, or maintaining family ties, and comes with strict conditions
that must be met. All offenders are subject to a risk assessment before being released.
Temporary release contributes to public protection by enabling release plans to be
tested, under strict conditions, before the offender is released. It also allows prisoners
to participate in necessary activities outside of the prison establishment. This helps
them to adjust to life on release, which contributes to reducing reoffending.</p><p>On
10 March, the Government announced a package of measures to improve the consistency,
risk assessment and monitoring of releases on temporary licence. The improvements
will apply to all prisoners but, in addition, a new scheme of Restricted ROTL will
be introduced for those prisoners who have committed serious crimes in the past. This
will feature more stringent risk assessment procedures carried out by probation professionals,
and more robust monitoring arrangements when this sort of offender is on temporary
licence in the community.</p><p>In 2012, the latest period for which figures are available,
611 prisoners serving a life sentence, and 1,043 prisoners serving an indeterminate
sentence for public protection, were granted release on temporary licence. These figures
have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording
system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.</p>
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