§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many life prisoners have served their sentences but are yet to be released. [48648]
§ Beverley Hughes[holding answer 17 April 2002]: Life sentence prisoners are required to serve a minimum period in custody to satisfy the requirements of retribution and deterrence; this is known as the tariff. After the tariff period has been served a life sentence prisoner may be considered for release on life licence but release will only be allowed if the prisoner is judged no longer to be a risk to the public. Prisoners released on life licence are liable to be recalled for the rest of their lives.
On 31 March 2002, a total of 5,060 life sentence prisoners were held in custody. Of these, approximately 1,500 had reached or exceeded their tariff expiry date.
§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many lifers who maintain their innocence are denied access to education facilities. [48656]
§ Beverley Hughes[holding answer 17 April 2002]: I would not expect any prisoner serving a life sentence to be denied access to education facilities or the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge because they maintain their innocence.
If my hon. Friend has a particular case which he would like to write to me about, I will ensure that it is followed up.
§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what statistics are kept on the number of life prisoners yet to be released who are claiming they are innocent of the crime for which they have been imprisoned; [48649]
(2) how many life prisoners who (a) maintain their innocence and (b) who admit their guilt have been granted parole on their first hearing in each year since 1995; [48653]
(3) what the average number of prison moves has been for (a) a lifer and (b) a lifer who maintains his innocence in the last five years. [48655]
333W
§ Beverley Hughes[holding answer 17 April 2002]: This information is not held centrally and could be collected only at disproportionate cost. New guidance for prison and probation staff on how to handle the cases of life sentence prisoners who deny their guilt was recently issued in a revised version of Chapter 7 of the "Lifer Manual (Prison Service Order 4700)". I have arranged for a copy of this to be placed in the Library.