§ Mr. William RossTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to her answer of 6 May 1998,Official Report, columns 412–13, on prisoners, if she will list for each of the years from 1998 to 2002 and for the following five years the number of prisoners in each category expected to be released who are serving life or other indeterminate sentences. [41712]
310W
§ Mr. IngramAs a specific tariff is not set for individual indeterminate sentence prisoners in Northern Ireland, the information sought is not readily available. Figures provided previously have been broad approximations for indicative purposes. Given the small numbers involved, disaggregation of these figures by affiliation and by year of possible release could be misleading and could result in individual prisoners being identified or drawing incorrect inferences about the future handling of their cases.
The table is an estimate of the number of indeterminate sentence prisoners at HMP Maze who could be released during the calendar years 1998, 1999 and 2000. The figures include prisoners in organizations which do not have a cease-fire and exclude prisoners who have already been given a provisional release date or are at an advanced stage of consultation about release.
Number of indeterminate prisoners Total number of prisoners 99 Estimated releases in 1998 0 Estimated releases in 1999 6 Estimated releases in 2000 14 Remaining after December 2000 79