§ Mr. SteinbergTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners are serving mandatory life sentences. [143915]
§ Mr. BoatengThe latest available provisional information is for 31 November 2000. On that date there were 3,376 persons in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales serving a mandatory life sentence.
§ Mr. SteinbergTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average time served before release was for life sentence prisoners in the last 10 years. [143916]
§ Mr. BoatengInformation on the average time served before release for life sentence prisoners in England and Wales over the last 10 years is given in the table. This information is also published in successive volumes of 425W "Prison Statistics England and Wales" (table 5.5 of the 1999 edition, Cm 4805) copies of which are in the Library.
Average time served prior to release on life licence in England and Wales by life sentence prisoners, 1990–99 Year of release Average time served (years) 1990 13.0 1991 12.1 1992 13.2 1993 14.5 1994 14.9 1995 13.8 1996 13.8 1997 14.3 1998 13.3 1999 14.8