§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What has been, during the last five years, the increase in numbers of (a) life-sentence prisoners being reviewed for release on licence and (b) determinate-sentence prisoners being reviewed for release on parole; and how many staff (or full-time equivalents) are now employed within the Home Office to consider the cases of the above two categories of prisoner; and what has been, during the last five years, the increase in Home Office staff so employed.
§ Lord GlenarthurDuring the period 1981–85, the numbers of life sentence prisoners reviewed by the Parole Board for release on licence and the numbers of determinate sentence prisoners reviewed for parole were as follows:
Life Sentence Prisoners Determinate Sentence Prisoners 1981 235 9,620 1982 310 9,193 1983 264 9,534 1984 235 19,071* 1985 276 22,912 *The minimum qualifying period for parole was reduced from 12 to 6 months with effect from 1st July 1984. During the same period, the number of staff responsible for preparing the cases of life sentence prisoners for review by the Parole Board and considering Parole Board recommendations increased from 30 to 35 (including three additional staff approved in October 1985), although this increase mainly reflected the extra burden of work created by the increased number of life sentence prisoners within the prison system and on licence in the community. The number of staff employed within the Home Office in processing parole reviews for determinate sentence prisoners rose from 42½ to 72 during the same period, mainly to cope with the extra caseload created by the extension of the parole scheme in 1984; and a further increase in resources is due to take place in the near future because of the continuing increase in the parole caseload.