HL Deb 02 May 1995 vol 563 cc114-6WA
Lord Windlesham

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What was the population on 30 June 1992, 1993 and 1994 of persons serving a sentence of life imprisonment (including detention during Her Majesty's pleasure and custody for life) in England and Wales, categorised by: (i) male and female life sentence prisoners, (ii) those serving mandatory or discretionary life sentences, and (iii) the proportion of mandatory life sentence prisoners expressed as a percentage of the total for each year.

Baroness Blatch

Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter to Lord Windlesham from the Director of Security and Services, HM Prison Service Mr. Richard Tilt, dated 2 May 1995:

Population of life sentence prisoners in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales on 30 June 1992–1994
30 June All life sentence prisoners Total Mandatory life sentence for murder Discretionary life sentence Per cent, of all life sentence prisoners serving mandatory life sentence for murder
Males Females
1992 2904 96 3000 2380 620 79
1993 2990 105 3095 12509 1586 181
19941 3081 111 3192 2592 600 81
1 Provisional figures.

Lady Blatch has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question about life sentence prisoners.

The information you requested is given in the table below.