To ask His Majesty's Government how many people serving a sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection had their first parole hearing (1) on, or (2) after, tariff expiry and were either (a) directed, or (b) not directed, for release, following their hearing in each year since 2009.

By law any prisoner serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence who has completed the minimum term (tariff) set by the Court at the point of sentence is eligible to be considered for release. However, the Parole Board will direct the prisoner’s release where it concludes that it is no longer necessary on the grounds of public protection for the prisoner to remain confined.

The Secretary of State must refer a prisoner’s case to the Parole Board at the end of their minimum tariff period and, if release is not directed, at least every two years thereafter. The Parole Board is responsible for the listing of cases referred to it. Ministers or officials may not intervene in this process.

The total number of prisoners serving an IPP sentence that had their first parole hearing after 2009 and were either (a) directed for release, or (b) not directed for release, following the hearing, is shown in the following table:

Notes:

1. Cases not directed for release include open condition decisions.
2. Providing the data as asked is not possible due to a number of process and system related issues that form part of the normal generic parole process.
3. ‘Hearing/outcome year’ refers to the date of the hearing or, in instances where the date of the hearing is not recorded, the outcome date.
4. Records prior to 2010 could not be located using administrative systems. The data provided only accounts for cases where the parole eligibility date starts from 2009. The first parole hearing data in the database is from 2010, so this restriction is necessary to improve identification of first parole hearings. It is likely that some cases with a parole eligibility date in 2009 or 2010 had a parole date hearing in 2009; these would not be captured in the table.
5. Some hearings in recent years may be yet to conclude.
6. This data does not account for deferrals or adjournments of parole hearings. 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 HM Prison & Probation Service. Consequently, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.