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Home Office

Answer

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many life sentence prisoners were recalled to custody during each of the last 48 months; and what the reasons for recall were. [168022] Paul Goggins: The numbers of life sentence prisoners recalled to custody from 1 April 2000 onwards are shown in the table. However, the reasons for these licence revocations are only recorded from October 2002. Life licences can be revoked for a specific reason or a combination of reasons. In broad terms, a licensee's recall to custody is likely to occur in two main areas. Firstly, where specific behaviour, criminal or otherwise, is giving rise to concerns over the potential risk of harm to the public. Secondly, where probation staff are unable safely to manage the level of risk as a result of the licensee's non-compliance with licence conditions. Other issues will frequently combine with these main factors, most notably concerns relating to alcohol and drug misuse. Of the 70 lifers recalled from 1 October 2002 to 31 March 2004, the reasons for recall were listed as: actual or potential risk of harm to others (17 cases); breach of licence conditions (20 cases); either or both of the above factors, linked to other concerns over behaviour (33 cases). Life sentence prisoner recalls April 2000 to March 2004 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Year/month Number of recalls 2000 April 2 May 1 June 2 July 2 August 4 September 5 October 2 November 3 December 2 2001 January 6 February 1 March 5 April 0 May 1 June 2 July 5 August 4 September 2 October 3 November 1 December 3 2002 January 1 February 2 March 2 April 1 May 2 June 3 July 2 August 3 September 2 October 3 November 3 December 2 2003 January 2 February 3 March 3 April 4 May 4 June 2 July 4 August 3 September 2 October 10 November 6 December 5 2004 January 6 February 3 March 5 _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

168022; 422 c869-70W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Parole Prisoners Life imprisonment

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk