§ Lord Lamont of Lerwickasked Her Majesty's Government:
On how many occasions in the past five years people have been released from prison after serving more than five years on the grounds that there was a miscarriage of justice. [HL1825]
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Falconer of Thoroton)Figures provided by the Criminal Cases Review Commission show that between 31 March 1997 and 28 February 2003, 85 cases referred by it to the Court of Appeal have resulted in convictions which have subsequently been quashed (including sentence only). Of these, 69 were sentenced to over five years.