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Prisoners Release

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners have been released having served no more than a quarter of their sentence for offences of each type in each of the last three years. [251426]


2 Feb 2009 : Column 920W

Mr. Hanson: Prisoners may only be released into the community earlier than the half way point of their sentence under either the home detention curfew scheme (HDC) or the end of custody licence scheme (ECL).

The home detention curfew scheme enables suitable prisoners to be released subject to an electronically monitored curfew up to 135 days earlier than the half way point of their sentence. No prisoners are released on HDC unless they have served at least one quarter of their sentence subject to a minimum of 30 days in custody.

Under the end of custody licence scheme eligible prisoners may be released up to 18 days earlier than the half way point of their sentence subject to serving a minimum of seven days in custody after sentence. Some prisoners serving very short sentences of between 28 days and 72 days may therefore be released on licence under the ECL scheme on or before they have served one quarter of their sentence if they meet the eligibility criteria.

The following tables show the number of HDC and ECL releases by offence group. The HDC figures are published annually in Offender Management Caseload Statistics (most recently for 2007) and information on ECL releases is published monthly. All publications are available on the Ministry of Justice website at:

It is not possible to provide the specific information requested on numbers of prisoners released after serving no more than a quarter of their sentence in custody without manual checking of individual records at disproportionate cost.

Home detention curfew release by offence group( 1) , 2005-07, England and Wales
2005 2006 2007

 Population in sentence length band Released Release rate (%) Population in sentence length band Released Release rate (%) Population in sentence length band Released Release rate (%)

Total

54,616

17,296

32

52,987

13,666

26

53,835

11,428

21

Violence

10,064

3,204

32

9,840

2,490

25

10,397

2,118

20

Sexual offences

1,236

2

0

1,203

0

0

1,180

0

0

Robbery

2.451

901

37

2,284

709

31

2,520

694

28

Burglary

6,334

1,298

20

6,168

1,069

17

6,347

945

15

Theft and handling

8,846

2,107

24

8,679

1,705

20

8,227

1,380

17

Fraud and forgery

2,833

1,287

45

3,243

1,169

36

3,196

917

29

Drug offences

4,338

2,509

58

4,296

2,347

55

4,381

2,106

48

Motoring offences

8,517

3,046

36

6,984

1,923

28

5,569

1,290

23

Other(2)

9,997

2,942

29

10,290

2,254

22

12,018

1,978

16

(1) Offence recorded on prison IT system. Investigations suggest that around 5 per cent. of offence types recorded on this system do not relate to the offence they were released on HDC for but relate to offences committed after release from prison and before the licence expiry date for their sentence.
(2) Includes the offence of bigamy.


2 Feb 2009 : Column 921W

2 Feb 2009 : Column 922W
ECL releases by offence group—December 2008 and cumulative totals
Releases in December 2008 Year to date 2007

 Male Female Total 1 January to 31 December 2008 29 June to 31 December 2007

2,498

297

2,795

31,318

16,197

By offence group

Violence against the person(1)

507

62

569

6,116

3,000

Sexual offences

0

0

0

5

4

Robbery

56

4

60

792

349

Burglary

249

9

258

2.794

1,499

Theft and Handling

522

125

647

7.116

3,682

Fraud and Forgery

46

12

58

656

291

Drug offences

111

6

117

1,322

691

Motoring offences

284

7

291

3,473

2,032

Other offences

682

64

746

8,431

4,362

Offence not recorded

41

8

49

513

287

(1) Excludes serious violent offences such as murder, manslaughter, wounding with intent to commit grievous bodily harm, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, child cruelty and serious explosives offences. A full list of exclusions can be found in Prison Service Instruction 42/2007 (which consolidates and replaces PSI 27/2007).
Note:
Data Sources and Quality: 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. See Data Sources and Quality section of report for more information.
Source:
Taken from Table 1 in OMCS ‘ECL releases and recalls December 2008. England and Wales’

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners have been released on end-of-custody licence since 29 June 2007; how many of those were foreign nationals; and how many such prisoners have re-offended while on licence. [252285]

Mr. Straw: Between 29 June 2007 and 31 December 2008, the latest date for which information is available, there were 47,515 prisoners released under the end of custody licence scheme. Those foreign national prisoners who either have no lawful basis upon which to remain in the UK or will be subject to deportation at the end of their sentence are not eligible for release under the end of custody licence (ECL) scheme.

The Government have made it clear that they will seek to remove or deport those foreign nationals who commit crimes in the UK and meet the relevant criteria. Of the 47,515 prisoners who were released under the end of custody licence scheme, less than 6 per cent. of these were foreign national prisoners. Internal management information also shows that less than 1 per cent. of those foreign national prisoners who were released under the scheme were later convicted of a further offence during their period of end of custody 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.

Prisoners Transfers

Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost of transferring prisoners (a) from one prison to another and (b) to and from court was in each of the last five years. [252157]

Mr. Hanson: Details of the costs of transferring prisoners to one prison from another in England and Wales using the inter prison transfer contract are held by financial year and are set out in the following table:

 Cost of inter prison transfers (£ million)

2003-04

5.64

2004-05

5.79

2005-06

5.97

2006-07

7.38

2007-08

7.64


Since August 2004 the contracts for the escort of prisoners have included a separate payment for every prisoner journey undertaken. The payment covers vehicle and staff costs. Details of these payments for escorting prisoners to and from courts in England and Wales are available by calendar year from 2005 and are set out in the following table.

 Cost of escorting prisoners to and from courts (£ million)

2005

53.32

2006

55.99

2007

59.17

2008

61.80

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