HC Deb 16 October 1996 vol 282 cc1007-8W
Mr. Wareing

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to ensure that prison release dates are calculated correctly; how many prisoners were recently wrongly released; how many reoffended or in other ways breached the conditions of their release; and if he will make a statement. [40560]

Miss Widdecombe

[holding answer 15 October 1996]: The Government had proposed in March that there should be new arrangements in England and Wales for determining the effect on release dates of time spent on remand. These proposals, set out in the White Paper "Protecting the Public" provide that in all cases the judge will determine, when passing sentence, how much remand time will count against the sentence.

Following the recent clarification of existing law by the High Court in the case of R v. Naughton, governors have been issued with fresh guidance stating that remand time in relation to consecutive sentences cannot be counted more than once.

Of the 541 prisoners serving consecutive sentences who were released early, figures for the period ending 11 October show that nine prisoners have been returned to prison either for breach of their licence or following commission of further offences, or both. Information about any prisoner who may have been arrested for alleged further offences and has not been remanded in custody is not available.