§ Lord Allen of Abbeydaleasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many prisoners serving life sentences in England and Wales have already been detained for over 15 years; and, of these, how many have been detained for over 20 years.
Earl FerrersResponsibility for the subject of this Question has been delegated to the Prison Service and its Director General, Mr. Derek Lewis. The Director General has therefore responded to the Question and his letter is given below.
Letter to Lord Allen of Abbeydale from the Director General of the Prison Service, Mr. Derek Lewis, dated February 1994
Lord Ferrers has asked me to reply to your recent Question asking how many prisoners serving life sentences in England and Wales have already been detained for over 15 years; and of these how many have been detained for over 20 years.
The latest available provisional information is for 30 June 1993. On that date there were 345 prisoners in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales serving their original life sentences who had served 15 years or more after sentence, of whom 110 had served 20 years or more. The information is published annually in Chapter 8 of Prison Statistics, England and Wales, copies of which are in the House of Commons Library.