To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offenders convicted of life sentences since (a) 2000, (b) 2001 and (c) 2002 have been released from prison. (129658)

I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply of 16 April 2007, Official Report, column 488W. Answering the earlier question of 12 June 2006 referred to involved significant manual checking of records and was integral to informing the need for a data quality review in the Department. Since then the data quality review has begun and as part of that review we are developing a new database that will enable us to collect the data requested centrally. But, at this time to answer the question would involve a disproportionate cost.