Figures by offence group for the numbers of prisoners serving life and indeterminate sentences in England and Wales between 2003 and 2005, the last year for which figures are available, can be found in the following table. These figures are taken from table 8.25 of the Offender Management Caseload Statistics for these years, copies of which can be found in the House of Commons Library.
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.
Type of Offence 2003 2004 2005 Murder 3,698 3,726 3,870 Manslaughter 172 177 170 Other homicide and attempted homicide 144 159 161 Other Violence against the person 460 509 586 Rape 534 573 628 Other sexual offence 51 50 49 Other offences 257 293 311 Arson 102 108 106 Total 5,419 5,594 5,882