To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners currently serving sentences in Her Majesty's prisons are beyond their original or adjusted tariff; and of these, how many are maintaining innocence of the crime for which they were convicted. (241545)

On 8 December 2008, there were 3,867 indeterminate sentenced prisoners in custody recorded as being beyond their original or adjusted tariff.

This figure is taken from the Public Protection Unit Database (PPUD) within the National Offender Management Service. As with any large scale recording system, it is subject to possible errors arising from either data entry or processing.

No central recording of prisoners maintaining innocence is maintained. To establish how many prisoners are beyond their original and adjusted tariff and maintaining their innocence would require a manual checking of individual records, which could be carried out only at disproportionate cost.