To ask His Majesty's Government how many people received an indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection in total; and of those, how many were sentenced under (1) the original provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 unamended by any subsequent Act, and (2) the provisions of the 2003 Act as amended by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008.

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people currently in prison serving an indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (1) have never been released, and (2) have been recalled; and for each of those groups, how many were sentenced under (a) the original provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 unamended by any subsequent Act, and (b) the provisions of the 2003 Act as amended by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008.

The Government is committed to the protection of the public and the effective management of offenders. By law, prisoners serving indeterminate sentences who have completed their tariff will be released only when the Parole Board concludes that it is no longer necessary on the grounds of public protection for them to remain confined.

The amendment to the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (the 2003 Act) in relation to sentencing a person convicted of a relevant specified offence to Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP), by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (the 2008 Act), commenced on 14 July 2008. It is not possible to split the sentencing data provided below by that specific date, as it can be extracted from all data only within a single month. A separate figure has been provided for July 2008 alone as this may include cases where individuals were sentenced under either the original provisions of the 2003 Act or as amended by the 2008 Act.

The following table shows the total number of offenders who received an IPP sentence, on a principal offence basis, between the commencement and abolishment of the sentence, in England and Wales [1] [2] [3]:

Source: Court Proceedings Database

* The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 amendments commenced on 14 July 2008.

The following table shows the number of people currently in prison serving an IPP sentence who (1) have never been released, and (2) have been recalled; and for each of those groups, how many were sentenced under (a) the original provisions of the 2003 Act unamended by any subsequent Act, and (b) the provisions of the 2003 Act as amended by the 2008 Act [1]:

** Date of sentence could not be located.

*** Figures as of 30 September 2022.

Notes:

1. Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that this data has been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts or prison service. Consequently, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.

2. The figures given in the tables relate to defendants for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.

3. Data are given on a principal disposal basis - i.e. reporting the most severe sentence for the principal offence.