§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
With regard to their reply of 19th February, whether they will state the offences, and the age at the time of offending, of the seven persons sentenced to detention at the pleasure of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland who have already spent 12 years or longer in prison; and whether each case has been reviewed by the Life Sentence Review Board, and if not, by what date initial reviews will be completed.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office (Lord Lyell)Of the seven "pleasure" cases who have served 12 years or longer in prison, three were 16 and four were 17 years old at the time of the murders of which they were convicted. By the middle of this year all seven cases will have been reviewed by the Life Sentence Review Board on at least two occasions.
The sentence of detention during the pleasure of the Secretary of State is imposed only for murder and where the offender was under the age of 18 years at the time of the crime.