§ Mr. VazTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners serving life sentences have been granted parole or released on licence during the past 20 years in(a) England and (b) Wales.
§ Mr. MellorLife sentence prisoners are not eligible for parole but are released on licence. Statistics are not 19W available centrally of the areas to which prisoners are released. Information on releases before 1972 is not readily available. The numbers released in each of the years 1978–88 were published in table 8.5 of Prison statistics England and Wales 1988 (Cm 825), a copy of which is in the Library. The table gives figures for those released in the years 1972 to 1977, and 1989.
Life sentence prisoners1 first released on licence from prison service establishments in England and Wales, 1972–77, 1989 Year Number 1972 27 1973 35 1974 46 1975 41 1976 85 1977 70 21989 68 1 Including persons detained under section 53 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. 2 Provisional.