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<p /> <p /> <p>A life sentence is mandatory for murder and discretionary life sentences
are available for other very serious offences. This Government has introduced an automatic
life sentence for a second very serious violent or sexual offence.</p><p> </p><p>The
number of offenders who receive two or more life sentences is small. A number of life
sentence prisoners commit offences in prison which result in a second life sentence,
as is the case with the offender identified in response to this question. Some life
sentence prisoners can also receive a second life sentence on conviction for offences
committed prior to being imprisoned (e.g. a previous murder or rape).</p><p> </p><p>Of
all offenders sentenced to life imprisonment between the years 2000 and 2013, the
offender with the highest number of life sentences imposed on separate sentencing
occasions in the 30 years prior to their most recent life sentence is an offender
with four life sentences. All of the offender's life sentences were imposed for the
attempted murder of fellow inmates and a guard.</p><p> </p><p>The figure provided
has been drawn from an extract of the Police National Computer (PNC) data held by
the Department. The PNC holds details of all convictions and cautions given for recordable
offences committed in England and Wales. Full criminal histories are only available
for offenders convicted or cautioned for a recordable offence from the year 2000 onwards.
In addition, as with any large scale recording system the PNC is subject to possible
errors with data entry and processing.</p>
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