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Mrs. Renée Short
asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of prisoners who had received sentences ranging from 20 to 25 years, 15 to 20 years, 10 to 15 years, five to 10 years and two and a half to five years were granted early releases in each single year since 1979; and what effect this has had on the total of the prison population.
Mr. Mellor
[pursuant to his reply, 21 June 1985, c. 227]: The readily available information is given in the following table. Information on the number of persons on parole supervised by the probation service for each year since 1979 is published in "Probation Statistics, England and Wales" (table 1·2 of the latest issue, for 1983).
| Persons recommended for parole as a proportion of all persons discharged * from prison department establishments by length of sentence | |||||
| Percentage | |||||
| Length of sentence | Date of recommendation | ||||
| 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1981–4 | |
| 2 years or more, but less than 5 | 60 | 64 | 65 | ‡70 | 65 |
| †5 years or more | 72 | 77 | 75 | 70 | 74 |
| †All sentence lengths of 2 years or more | 62 | 66 | 67 | 70 | 66 |
| * Persons recommended for parole are not necessarily discharged in the same year | |||||
| † Excluding life | |||||
| ‡ Increased by the reduction in the minimum qualifying period for parole in July 1984 | |||||