§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the number of convicted murderers who(a) have served and been released and (b)who are in prison and expect to serve (i) less than their tariff, (ii) their tariff and (iii) a period greater than their tariff; and in the latter case, what was the median period by which their period served exceeded their tariff. [59399]
§ Mr. George HowarthThe readily available information relates to all life sentence prisoners, both mandatory and discretionary. No such prisoner can expect to be released on licence before the expiry of the tariff,258W which is the period deemed necessary to be spent in custody to meet the requirements of retribution and deterrence.
Of the 265 life sentence prisoners released between April 1996 and October 1998, three were released on tariff expiry, 90 within one year of tariff expiry and 172 more than one year after tariff expiry. The information required to calculate the median period for the latter could be obtained only by examining individual prisoners' records.
In his announcement of 9 July 1998, Official Report, columns 587-88, my right hon. Friend set out revised arrangements for the review of life sentence cases which will enable more prisoners to be released at or close to tariff expiry where it is safe to do so.
§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convicted murderers have, in the past 12 months, been set tariffs of(a) four, (b) five, (c) six,(d) seven, (e) eight, (f) nine, (g) 10, (h) 11, (i) 12, (j) 13, (k) 14, (1) 15, (m) 16, (n) 17, (o) 18, (p) 19, (q) 20 and (r) over 20 years. [59415]
§ Mr. George HowarthThe number of convicted murderers for whom a tariff was set for the first time in the period 1 November 1997 to 31 October 1998 (inclusive) was 315. The tariffs are broken down by length in the table.
Tariff length in years Number of murderers 4 0 5 0 6 0 7 2 8 11 9 9 10 36 11 16 12 54 13 29 14 42 15 41 16 21 17 8 18 14 19 2 20 22 over 20 8 Total 315