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Prison Sentences

Answer

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data in Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) on the prison population.

Table 1: Mean Tariff Length for Offenders Receiving a Life Sentence, by Age at Sentencing and Year of Sentence

SENTENCE AGE BAND	2024	2025*
Under 18	15	15
18 to 20	20	25
21 to 24	22	22
25 to 29	23	22
30 to 34	21	20
35 to 39	20	19
40 to 49	21	18
50 to 59	17	18
60 to 69	18	22
70 and over	17	21

Table 2: Median Tariff Length for Offenders Receiving a Life Sentence, by Age at Sentencing and Year of Sentence

SENTENCE AGE BAND	2024	2025*
Under 18	15	16
18 to 20	20	21
21 to 24	22	20
25 to 29	22	21
30 to 34	22	18
35 to 39	19	15
40 to 49	20	18
50 to 59	18	18
60 to 69	18	20
70 and over	14	20

Table notes:

1. *Data for 2025 are up to 30 September 2025.

2. Figures are subject to change as more information about tariff becomes available.

3. Tariff length is the time between date of sentencing and tariff expiry date, and does not take into account any time served on remand.

4. Figures do not include offenders who received a Whole Life Order.

Data sources and quality

The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Source: Public Protection Unit Database

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL13163

Session

2024-26

Subjects

Prison sentences

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk