§ 2.55 p.m.
§ Lord Boyd-Carpenter asked Her Majesty's Government:
§ How many convicted criminals sentenced by the courts to imprisonment for life were released during the past year and how many ended their lives as prisoners.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Earl Ferrers)My Lords, the provisional figure for 1993 for the number of life sentence prisoners who were first released on life licence is 118. During 1993, seven life sentence prisoners died in prison.
§ Lord Boyd-CarpenterMy Lords, does that Answer not indicate that a sentence of life imprisonment is now virtually meaningless and that the deterrent effect of what is still the sentence for the most serious offences has been gravely undermined? Have the Government any proposals in mind to remedy that?
Earl FerrersMy Lords, I do not believe at all that it means that the sentence is meaningless. A person who is sentenced has a life sentence. Part of that time is spent in custody; part of it is spent on licence when he is released. Each case must be considered on its merits. When one thinks that there are 3,148 life sentence 379 prisoners detained in prison in England and Wales at present, I do not believe that that figure is necessarily unreasonable.
§ Lord McIntosh of HaringeyMy Lords, I agree entirely with what the Minister said in his supplementary answer, but does he not accept that the idea of people ending their natural lives in prison is not only degrading for us but also damaging to prison morale?
Earl FerrersMy Lords, I do not believe that that necessarily follows. A person has to end his life somewhere, and if such a person finds himself in prison, it may be that he ends his life there. The whole principle of the criminal justice system at present is that a person is given a life sentence: he may spend the whole of his life in prison but on many occasions he is allowed out on licence for the reasons which the noble Lord, Lord McIntosh of Haringey, reminded the House.
§ Lord TebbitMy Lords, does my noble friend recollect that on 24th January he was good enough to give me a Written Answer which indicated that through the years 1990, 1991 and 1992 a total of 13 people were killed by killers who had been released from prison? Can he say how many of those killers who were released and killed again had been the subject of life sentences?