My right honourable friend the Minister of State (David Hanson) has today made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
On 19 June 2007 (Official Report, House of Lords, col. 96) my noble and learned friend Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the then Lord Chancellor, announced a new scheme, the end of custody licence (ECL), which introduced a presumption in favour of release on licence for prisoners serving between four weeks and four years for the final 18 days of their sentence, subject to meeting strict eligibility criteria and providing a release address. Prisoners who would normally be subject to supervision on release (prisoners serving 12 months or more or under 22 years of age) are required to meet their probation officer after release and to have regular contact after that, in line with their supervision plan. All prisoners released on ECL are liable to recall if they are reported to have misbehaved during the period of the licence.
The first releases under the scheme took place on 29 June 2007.
Tables with the full set of data for this report have been made available in the Libraries, the Vote Office and the Printed Paper Office. The tables are being published on the Ministry of Justice website today at www.justice.gov.uk/publications/endofcustodylicence.htm
The following information applies only to the releases and recalls in the first week of operation of the scheme, and future reports will be published monthly:
between implementation of the ECL scheme on 29 June 2007 and 5 July 2007, there were 1,701 releases on ECL. Of these, 1,552 (91 per cent) were male and 149 (9 per cent) were female;
the greatest number of releases was for offenders serving sentences for theft and handling, with 404 (24 per cent of all releases) coming from this offence group; and,
1,412 (83 per cent) of releases were from sentences of less than 12 months, with the remaining 289 (17 per cent) from sentences of 12 months to less than four years.
The number of releases on ECL each day are shown in the table:
Date Number of releases Friday 29 June 2007 884 Monday 2 July 2007 506 Tuesday 3 July 2007 124 Wednesday 4 July 2007 87 Thursday 5 July 2007 100
There were 30 notified decisions to recall between 29 June and 5 July. The most common reason for recall was the offender being out of touch with their supervising probation officer, with 11 (37 per cent) of recalls being for this reason.
Any prisoners falling into the following categories are excluded from release on ECL:
registered sex offenders, whether or not they are currently serving a sentence for a sexual offence;
prisoners serving sentences for serious violence as specified in Prison Service Instruction 27/2007;
prisoners who have previously escaped from custody;
prisoners who have previously breached temporary release conditions during the current sentence, have offended during a period under temporary release at any time, or who are currently serving a sentence for failing to return from temporary release;
prisoners who report that they do not have a release address;
foreign national prisoners who will be subject to deportation at the end of their sentence;
prisoners who are subject to extradition proceedings;
sentenced prisoners who have been remanded into custody on further charges or who are awaiting sentence;
prisoners who, within the period of their current sentence, had been recalled either from HDC or from normal licence;.
prisoners under 18;
prisoners serving DTO sentences; and
prisoners required to undertake a treatment programme as a condition of the normal (end of sentence) supervision licence that could not be arranged during the period of ECL.
The data presented in this Statement are drawn from the prison administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. While the figures shown have been checked as far as practicable, they should be regarded as approximate and not necessarily accurate to the last whole number.
Males Females Total All ECL releases between 29 June 2007 and 5 July 2007 1,552 149 1,701 By offence Violence against the person (1) 317 27 344 Robbery 22 2 24 Burglary 148 1 149 Theft and Handling 354 50 404 Fraud and Forgery 31 6 37 Drug offences 57 8 65 Motoring offences 213 6 219 Other offences 379 48 427 Offence not recorded 31 1 32 By sentence length Less than or equal to six months 1,105 122 1,227 Greater than six months to less than 12 months 171 14 185 12 months to less than four years 276 13 289 By age 18-20 216 17 233 21-24 313 18 331 25-29 356 38 394 30-39 416 59 475 40-49 193 13 206 50-59 47 4 51 60 and over 11 0 11 By ethnic group White 1,334 131 1,465 Mixed 34 6 40 Asian or Asian British 70 0 70 Black or Black British 108 11 119 Chinese or other ethnic group 4 1 5 Not stated 1 0 1 Unrecorded 0 0 0 1991 Census ethnic codes 1 0 1 (1) Excludes serious violent offences such as murder, manslaughter, wounding with intent to commit grievous bodily harm, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, child cruelty and serious explosives offences. A full list of exclusions can be found in Prison Service Instruction 27/2007. Data sources and quality: 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. See data sources and quality section of report for more information.
Releases between 29 June and 5 July 2007 Establishment Releases Males Altcourse 12 Acklington 4 Ashwell 4 Aylesbury 1 Belmarsh 18 Buckley Hall 4 Blundeston 2 Bedford 41 Brockhill 8 Bristol 13 Birmingham 40 Bullingdon 25 Brinsford 1 Blakenhurst 50 Bullwood Hall 6 Brixton 13 Chelmsford 34 Cardiff 15 Camp Hill 6 Coldingley 1 Castington 3 Channings Wood 6 Canterbury 5 Dartmoor 3 Durham 34 Doncaster 61 Dorchester 8 Deerbolt 20 Erlestoke 3 Standford Hill 22 Everthorpe 20 Exeter 31 Elmley 19 Forest Bank 45 Ford 17 Featherstone 2 Gloucester 16 Guys Marsh 14 Grendon (Spring Hill) 6 Glen Parva 31 Hollesley Bay (Warren Hill) 12 Moorland Open 11 Hewell Grange 9 Holme House 31 Hindley 3 Hull 6 Highdown 24 Haverigg 15 Kirkham 46 Lancaster 6 Leicester 14 Leeds 41 Lindholme 11 Lincoln 15 Liverpool 47 Littlehey 1 Lewes 9 Leyhill 25 Moorland 12 Manchester 54 Maidstone 1 Edmunds Hill 21 Nottingham 14 Northallerton 28 North Sea Camp 30 Norwich 23 Onley 20 Peterborough 21 Portland 15 Preston 19 Parc 38 Pentonville 19 Rochester 3 Reading 8 Ranby 28 Risley 10 Stafford 1 Stoke Heath 26 Stocken 4 Swinfen Hall 3 Sudbury 11 Swansea 15 Shrewsbury 14 Thorn Cross 4 Usk (Prescoed) 8 Winchester 11 Wealstun 5 Woodhill 27 Wayland 3 Wymott 7 Wolds 2 Wormwood Scrubs 28 Wandsworth 29 Total 1,552 Females Askham Grange 1 Bronzefield 18 Drake Hall 7 Downview 6 East Sutton Park 1 Eastwood Park 16 Foston Hall 17 Holloway 17 Low Newton 10 Morton Hall 1 New Hall 22 Peterborough 16 Send 2 Styal 15 Total 149 Males and Females Total 1,701 (1) Prisons not releasing any prisoners on ECL between 29 June and 5 July 2007 are not included in this breakdown. Data sources and quality: 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. See data sources and quality section of report for more information.
Decisions to recall between 29 June and 5 July 2007 Decisions to recall as notified to NOMS 30 By reason for recall Reoffended (1) 6 Failed to reside (2) 6 Out of touch (3) 11 Poor behaviour (4) 7 Number of offenders unlawfully at large on 5 July 2007 18
In addition, NOMS has been notified of one offender released a week earlier than his due ECL date of 5 July and two other prisoners now back in custody, having been recalled following release without appropriate authorisation.
(1) The number of actual further offences committed, as notified to NOMS, is eight. This number is higher than that of recalls for reoffending, because offenders will sometimes commit/be charged with more than one offence and not all offences are identified while the offender is serving the period of ECL. Some offences will be identified and notified to NOMS after the offender has completed the period of ECL and is therefore not liable to be recalled.
(2) The offender did not live, whether for one night or longer, at the address given on the ECL licence and which the governor had approved for the purpose of release on ECL.
(3) The offender did not report on release or thereafter to his supervising probation officer as required by the conditions of the supervision licence. (This would apply to offenders serving sentences of 12 months or over and all those under 22 who are subject to supervision by the National Probation Service).
(4) The offender has exhibited behaviour that indicates non-compliance, or a risk of reoffending or harm in respect of the conditions of the licence.
Data sources and quality: all the figures above are as notified to NOMS and may therefore be subject to inaccuracies. There may be recalls, reoffending, further offences, offenders returned to custody and offenders release not in accordance with the scheme, some of which may not have been notified to us.