§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many times in the last two years a unanimous recommendation of the national review committee that a prisoner be granted parole has been rejected by him; and if he will list the crimes and convictions and prison-status, in terms of category of prisoner, of the person or persons involved.
§ Mr. Mellor:The readily available information is published in the annual reports of the Parole Board. These show that in 1983, out of the 3,460 cases of determinate sentence prisoners in which the Parole Board recommended release, the Home Secretary was unable to accept the board's recommendation in 17 cases; in 1982, out of 3,158 cases, 20. It has never been the practice to identify individual cases, the kinds of cases involved, or whether the recommendations in question were made unanimously.