§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish in the Official Report the guidance given to governors of prisons on how Rules 43 and 45 made under Section 47 to the Prison Act 1952 are to be administered.
§ Mr. JohnA copy of the Prison Standing Orders containing guidance to prison governors on the administration of Rules 43 and 45 is in the Library of the House. There are also detailed administrative directives which it would not he appropriate to publish.
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§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons were serving fixed longterm sentences of 14 years or more in each of the last 10 years.
§ Mr. JohnThe following table gives such information as is readily available.
Persons serving determinate sentences of over 14 years on 30th June 1973 87 1974 88 1975 109 1976 114 Information for earlier years is not available.
§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many life prisoners were held in prisons in each year since the death penalty was abolished; and what was the average length of time served in each year.
§ Mr. JohnThe numbers of prisoners serving sentences of life imprisonment in prisons in England and Wales on 31st December in each year since 1965 and the average time served by those released during each of those years were as follows:
Average time served by those released during the year Year Number of life sentence prisoners in prison on 31st December Years Months 1965 413 9 1 1966 471 8 11 1967 536 8 3 1968 596 8 11 1969 656 9 0 1970 749 8 7 1971 833 10 8 1972 888 9 4 1973 975 9 2 1974 1,070 9 5 1975 1,176 10 7 1976 1,237 10 4 The figures include persons detained during Her Majesty's pleasure under Section 53(1) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 or for life under Section 53(2) of that Act but not persons who had been previously released on licence and subsequently recalled to prison. The average times served provide no indication of the time likely to be served by any individual prisoner since the figures do not show the range of sentences served—which have varied from six months in one case to over 20 years in others.
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§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners were prescribed Largactil in the last year for which figures are available.