Records are not held of the number of prisoners granted temporary release. However, the numbers of temporary release licences issued in 2007-08 was 441,167. This figure is the total of all individual licences issued, as some prisoners will be granted temporary release on a number of occasions and as a result will be issued with multiple licences over the course of a year. The 2008-09 figure will be published in the Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2008 at the end of July 2009. The publication of this bulletin has been pre-announced on the Ministry of Justice and the United Kingdom Statistics Authority websites.
Release on temporary licence is the mechanism that enables prisoners to participate in necessary activities, outside of the prison establishment, that directly contribute to their resettlement into the community and their development of a purposeful law abiding life. Prisoners are not granted temporary release unless they meet the eligibility criteria and pass a stringent risk assessment.