Life Imprisonment

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of prison sentences handed out were life sentences in each year since 1993; and if he will make a statement. (188946)

The following table shows the available information which can also be found in table 2.3 of ‘Sentencing Statistics 2006’, available at:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/sentencingannual.htm

*Persons sentenced to life sentences, 1996 to 2006, England and Wales*
Number and percentage
Custody rate and sentence length	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
All offences
Number given immediate custody at all courts	85,249	93,841	100,566	105,323	106,187	106,273	111,607	107,670	106,322	101,236	96,017

Life¹	338	367	394	483	467	503	555	513	570	625	547
Proportion (Percentage)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1
¹ Sentences of imprisonment for public protection introduced by the Criminal Justice Act 2003 on 4 April 2005.

Volume 472: debated on Wednesday 27 February 2008