Lord Huntasked Her Majesty's Government:
What was the number of life sentence prisoners in custody in 1960, 1965, 1970, 1975 and each year from 1980 to 1989, and what proportion of the sentenced prison population did they represent.
§ Viscount UllswaterInformation for 1960 and 1965 is not available. The average sentenced population in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales in 1970 was 33,910, of whom 730 (2 per cent.) were serving life sentences. The corresponding figures for 1975 were 33,733 and 1,137 (3 per cent.). Figures for the years 1980 and 1988 are published in Table 1.5 of Prison Statistics England and Wales 1988 (Cm. 825), a copy of which is in the Library. The provisional average sentenced population in 1989 was 37,885 and 2,674 (7 per cent.) were life sentence prisoners.
Lord Huntasked Her Majesty's Government:
What proportion of people given life sentences in 1960–69, 1970–79 and 1980–89 respectively had committed non-homicide offences.
§ Viscount UllswaterThe information required is given in the table below. Data for 1989 will not be available until autumn 1990.
915WA
Proportion of defendants given life sentences for non-homicide offences England and Wales Years Percentage 1960–68 12 1960–69 14 1970–78 17 1970–79 17 1980–88 16
Lord Huntasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the current number of life sentence prisoners; for what offences were they sentenced; and how many have been in prison for (a) 15 years or more and (b) 20 years or more.
§ Viscount UllswaterThe latest readily available information is given in the table.
Life sentence prisoners held under their original sentence(1) in prison services establishments in England and Wales on 30th September 1989: by time spent under sentence in such establishments and offence group Years spent under sentence(2) Offence group Under 15 years 15 and under 20 years 20 years and over All Murder 1,942 100 39 2,081 Manslaughter 146 18 7 171 Other homicide and attempted homicide 41 6 1 48 Other violence against the person 52 6 2 60 Rape 111 12 3 126 Other Sexual 26 3 — 29 Robbery 6 1 1 8 Arson 58 2 — 60 Other 18 — 1 19 All offences 2,400 148 54 2,602 (1) Excluding 110 prisoners recalled following an earlier release on licence. (2) Excluding any time spent on remand in custody or in non-prison service establishments. (3) The figures are those recorded centrally and are approximate: detailed checking of individual cases would involve disproportionate cost.