§ Lord Wigoderasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many prisoners, in the last complete year for which figures are available, were released on parole before they had served half their sentence.
§ Lord EltonThe information requested could be made available only at disproportionate cost. The only information readily available is the analysis of the length of licence period in relation to the length of sentence for those determinate sentence cases recommended for parole in 1981, published in Appendix 3, Table 3 of the Report of the Parole Board 1981. The number of cases in which the period of licence exceeded one-sixth of the sentence length gives an indication of the number of prisoners granted parole before serving half their sentence. However, this is only approximate since in some cases, particularly for young offenders, the period of licence does not end after two-thirds of the sentence has passed. Moreover, the groups given in the table are such that only 1,644 cases can be identified in which the period of licence exceeded one-sixth of the sentence length and in a further 2,338 cases it cannot be established from the table whether or not the period of licence exceeded one-sixth of the sentence length.