Since 2010 we have removed more than 40,000 foreign national offenders from our prisons, immigration removal centres and the community. A range of removal mechanisms exist that enable foreign offenders to be returned to their home countries, and we are working closely with the Department for Exiting the European Union and the Home Office as we consider our future criminal justice arrangements with the EU, with the aim of carrying on our close working relationship.

Where the maximum penalty for an offence is 10 years' imprisonment, or more, the court may impose any sentence up to the maximum.

Sentences of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) or an extended sentence for public protection (EPP), and their equivalents for offenders aged under 18, could only be imposed for specified violent and sexual offences listed in Schedule 15 to the Criminal Justice Act 2003, where the court also found the offender to be dangerous within the meaning of the provisions. An IPP sentence could only be imposed where the maximum penalty for the offence was 10 years, or more, and where the court considered that a life sentence was not appropriate or available. All offenders who have received a sentence of imprisonment or detention for public protection must serve the minimum custodial term imposed by the court, before being considered for release on licence by the Parole Board. These sentences were introduced in April 2005 and therefore no offender receiving an IPP sentence with a minimum term of 10 years would yet be eligible for release.

Since July 2008, the court also had the discretion to impose an EPP sentence for an offence listed on Schedule 15, regardless of the maximum penalty, and where the offender was considered to be dangerous, or a standard

determinate sentence. Offenders who received an EPP sentence since July 2008, are subject to automatic release at the half-way point of the custodial term. On release, an offender serving an EPP is on licence for the balance of the custodial term plus the full extended licence period imposed by the court, and may be recalled to custody. The table shows the figures for those released under an EPP, or young offender equivalent, where a custodial term of more than 10 years was imposed but where automatic release occurs before 10 years has been served.

Offenders serving a standard determinate sentence are subject to automatic release having served one half of the custodial term with the rest of the sentence served on licence, and subject to recall to custody. Data on offenders released from determinate sentences for specified offences are not held centrally. A manual trawl of prisoner files would be required to obtain these data; this would incur disproportionate cost.

Where an offender committed an offence prior to April 2005, the Criminal Justice Act 1991 and the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 apply. An offender serving a sentence of four years or more under the 1991 Act, regardless of the offence, is subject to release by the Parole Board between the one half and two-thirds point of the custodial term. On release, the licence period continues to the three-quarter point of the sentence. Under the 1998 Act, the court could impose an extended sentence where the offender was convicted of a sexual or violent offence. The custodial term of an extended sentence of more than four years would be served as under the 1991 Act provisions, and in addition the offender would be subject to an extended period on licence, commencing at the three-quarter point of the sentence.

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 replaced IPP and EPP sentences (and extended sentences under the 1998 Act) with extended determinate sentences and automatic life sentences. Under an extended sentence, the offender must serve at least two-thirds of the custodial term and, in serious cases, may serve the whole of the custodial term, before serving the rest of the sentence on licence. In addition, where the offender is convicted of a second very serious specified offence both of which merit a custodial term of 10 years or more, the court must impose a life sentence. These provisions were commenced in December 2012.

We want to ensure that prisons operate to a consistent standard when rewarding prisoners for positive behaviour and engaging with efforts to rehabilitate them. We announced an overhaul of the Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) scheme on 30 April, with the revised scheme coming into effect from November 2013. The revised scheme will provide consistency across the adult (18 or over) estate, with the introduction of a centralised privileges and facilities list. This will set out what is available at the different IEP levels. Governors

of prisons will be able to select privileges from this list to meet local circumstances but will not be able to deviate from it.

To identify spend per head for prisoners earnings would require examining a high volume of local individual records from each prison establishment and this would incur disproportionate costs.

When NOMS last conducted a survey of prisoner pay, in 2007, average prisoner pay was £9.60 per week. Convicted prisoners who refuse to work as directed receive no pay. Existing policy on prisoners' pay is set out in Prison Service Order 4460, a copy of which is available in the House Library.

The minimum rate of pay for employed prisoners is £4 per week. Only minimum rates of pay are set centrally, and responsibility for prisoner pay is devolved to governors and directors, who set the rates of pay for their particular establishments to reflect regime priorities. Eligibility to earn higher rates of pay is a key earnable privilege under the incentives and earned privileges scheme. The last survey of prisons of prisoner pay, completed in 2007, indicated that the average prisoner weekly pay was £9.60.

Prisoners are eligible for the standard rate of pay if they complete the full working week and demonstrate the required level of performance/effort required in any given activity in the establishment, or in any community work outside the establishment for which they are paid by the prison. The full working week in prison will normally be 10 morning, afternoon, or evening sessions, or five night shifts.

Prisoners who are employed in work, induction, education, training or offending behaviour programmes will receive at least the minimum weekly rate of pay for employed prisoners. The minimum rate of pay does not preclude deductions for poor attendance or performance.

Prisoners who incur deductions for poor attendance and/or performance may earn less than the minimum employed rate, provided that the deductions have been calculated according to the formula published by the governor/director.

The minimum rate of pay for employed prisoners is £4 per week. Only minimum rates of pay are set centrally, and responsibility for prisoner pay is devolved to governors and directors, who set the rates of pay for their particular establishments to reflect regime priorities. Eligibility to earn higher rates of pay is a key earnable privilege under the incentives and earned privileges scheme. The last survey of prisons of prisoner pay, completed in 2007, indicated that the average prisoner weekly pay was £9.60.

Prisoners are eligible for the standard rate of pay if they complete the full working week and demonstrate the required level of performance/effort required in any given activity in the establishment, or in any community work outside the establishment for which they are paid by the prison. The full working week in prison will normally be 10 morning, afternoon, or evening sessions, or five night shifts.

Prisoners who are employed in work, induction, education, training or offending behaviour programmes will receive at least the minimum weekly rate of pay for employed prisoners. The minimum rate of pay does not preclude deductions for poor attendance or performance.

Prisoners who incur deductions for poor attendance and/or performance may earn less than the minimum employed rate, provided that the deductions have been calculated according to the formula published by the governor/director.

Information is not held centrally on the number of older prisoners who are in receipt of £3.25 per week.

As at 31 March 2013 there were 82 females aged 60 and over and 1,808 males aged 65 and over in prison establishments in England and Wales.

These figures 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.

Information is not held centrally on the number of older prisoners who are in receipt of £3.25 per week.

As at 31 March 2013 there were 82 females aged 60 and over and 1,808 males aged 65 and over in prison establishments in England and Wales.

These figures 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.

All life sentence prisoners and those prisoners serving an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) must serve a minimum period of imprisonment to meet the needs of retribution and deterrence. Pursuant to section 30 of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997, the Secretary of State may at any time release an indeterminate sentence prisoner on licence if he or she is satisfied that exceptional circumstances exist which justifies early release on compassionate grounds. Such circumstances are either that the prisoner has a terminal illness and has less than three months to live or that the prisoner is bedridden or severely incapacitated. Before exercising this power, the Secretary of State must be satisfied that early release does not undermine public protection.

Comprehensive records in a readily accessible electronic format are not available for the last 30 years. Data are available in the required format since 2006. The number of compassionate releases of indeterminate sentence prisoners who had not reached their tariff expiry date between 2006 and 2012 was four. To put this into context, the total number of first releases of tariff-expired life and IPP prisoners over the same period was 2,191.

All life sentence prisoners and those prisoners serving an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) must serve a minimum period of imprisonment to meet the needs of retribution and deterrence. Pursuant to section 30 of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997, the Secretary of State may at any time release an indeterminate sentence prisoner on licence if he or she is satisfied that exceptional circumstances exist which justifies early release on compassionate grounds. Such circumstances are either that the prisoner has a terminal illness and has less than three months to live or that the prisoner is bedridden or severely incapacitated. Before exercising this power, the Secretary of State must be satisfied that early release does not undermine public protection.

Comprehensive records in a readily accessible electronic format are not available for the last 30 years. Data are available in the required format since 2006. The number of compassionate releases of indeterminate sentence prisoners who had not reached their tariff expiry date between 2006 and 2012 was four. To put this into context, the total number of first releases of tariff-expired life and IPP prisoners over the same period was 2,191.

The National Offender Management Service has responsibility for prisons in England and Wales.

To obtain the information for how many prisoners are receiving unemployment pay in both public and private prisons would require examining individual prisoner records to establish those who are in receipt of unemployment pay and this could be done only at disproportionate cost.

We received a number of responses to the consultation on ‘Improving the Code of Practice for Victims' of Crime’ from a range of stakeholders, including organisations representing victims’ groups, criminal justice practitioners, including those who work with offenders such as youth offending teams, and members of the public. None of those who responded to the consultation identified themselves as a prisoner.

Central data is not available to confirm how many prisoners responded to public consultations run by the Ministry of Justice in the last year. This information could be obtained only by a manual check with individual policy holders, which would incur disproportionate cost.

Convicted prisoners are not entitled to claim any state benefits while they are in prison and this includes the state retirement pension. Prisoners above state retirement age are not normally required to work although they may choose to do so, and will be paid if they do.

Prisoners pay policy, including minimum pay rates is set out in Prison Service Order 4460 Prisoners Pay. A payment of £3.25 is made to prisoners above state retirement age who do not work. This helps them meet day to day expenses such as access to PIN phone credit and postage costs for letters in order to maintain family ties. They may also make purchases from the prison canteen and facilities list.

The National Offender Management Service does not hold information centrally on the number of prisoners of retirement age who do not work. To obtain the information, each prison would need to examine individual prisoner records and this would be a significant exercise which could only be undertaken at disproportionate cost.

Information on the prison population in England and Wales by length of sentence and age group are published and available in the prison population section of the 'Offender Management Statistics Quarterly Bulletin' available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/series/prisons-and-probation-statistics

The requested data can be found in Table 1.1a and Table 1.8 respectively.

Information is not held centrally on prisoners’ declared health problems. However, in November 2010, the Ministry of Justice published the results of a survey of prisoners sentenced to between one month and four years in 2005 and 2006 (Surveying Prisoner Crime Reduction—SPCR). The survey found that 34% of prisoners reported having a long-standing illness, disability or infirmity (Table 1). (Ministry of Justice 2010, ‘Compendium of reoffending statistics and analysis’. November 2010.)

This self-report might exclude those with hidden issues, those who were not able to disclose mental illness, and those without insight into their condition. A separate analysis of prisoners' responses to this question, questions about their general health, and answers to an anxiety and depression screening scale found that approximately 36% of the sample could be considered to have a disability. This figure is made up of 28% with anxiety and depression, 11% with some form of physical disability, and 8% both (figures do not add up to 36% because of rounding) (Cunniffe, C, Van de Kerckhove, R, Williams K, and K Hopkins ‘Estimating the prevalence of disability amongst prisoners: results from the Surveying Prisoner Crime Reduction (SPCR) survey’. Ministry of Justice Research Summary 4/12).

This can be compared to estimates of disability among the general population ranging from around one in five (19%) (Office for National Statistics 2007, ‘Family Resources Survey Statistical Report’ 2005/06) to one in four (26%) (Howe 2010, ‘Life Opportunities Survey’ Interim Results: 2009/10).

These estimates may not include short-term or temporary illnesses or conditions.

The number of prisoners directed to hospital for treatment under sections 47 (sentenced prisoners) and 48 (unsentenced prisoners) of the Mental Health Act 1983 in each of the past five years is set out in the following table.

The table also shows these numbers as a proportion of the total prison population at the end of each period.

It has not been possible to respond to my hon. Friend in the time available before Prorogation.

The National Offender Management Service's central accounting system has a single accounting code for prisoners' earnings. It does not distinguish, for example, between prisoners' pay and other incentive payments. To separate out the amount earned by prisoners who participated in purposeful activity or the amount paid in specific incentive payments would require examining a high volume of local individual records from each establishment and this would incur disproportionate costs.

The following table shows the total amount spent on prisoners' earnings over the last five years:

When NOMS last conducted a survey of prisoner pay, in 2007, average prisoner pay was £9.60 per week. Work which prisoners undertake covers a range of tasks, such as cleaning within prisons. This reduces the need for external contractors to undertake the work at higher costs.

It is in practice impossible for an offender working inside a prison to earn sufficient pay that would reach the usual tax thresholds. However, prisoners working inside prison under Prison Rules are not technically classed as employees and as such are not liable to tax, unlike prisoners on "working out" schemes who are eligible for tax on any earnings.

Existing policy on Prisoners' Pay is set out in Prison Service Order 4460, a copy of which is available in the House of Commons Library.

It has not been possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.