To ask Her Majesty's Government what they estimate to be the total number of recalled Imprisonment for Public Protection prisoners broken down by (1) gender, and (2) ethnicity; and how many years are left on their tariff in each case.
Answered on
29 July 2021
The Government is committed to the protection of the public and the effective management of offenders. By law, prisoners serving indeterminate sentences who have completed their tariff will be released only when the independent Parole Board concludes that the risk they present to the public is capable of being safely managed in the community under probation supervision.
The following two tables show the number of unreleased prisoners serving an IPP sentence at 31 March 2021, by gender, ethnicity and the number of years to their tariff expiry, in England and Wales. The total number of IPP prisoners recorded in these two tables is 1,784.
Table 1
Gender | Number (Row Total) | Less than 1 year | 1 year to less than 2 years | 2 year to less than 3 years | 3 year to less than 4 years | 4 year to less than 5 years | 5 or more years | Tariff expired | Tariff unavailable |
Male | 1,761 | 24 | 22 | 13 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 1,682 | 2 |
Female | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 0 |
Table 2
Ethnicity | Number (Row Total) | Less than 1 year | 1 year to less than 2 years | 2 year to less than 3 years | 3 year to less than 4 years | 4 year to less than 5 years | 5 or more years | Tariff expired | Tariff unavailable |
Asian or Asian British | 92 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 83 | 0 |
Black or Black British | 229 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 208 | 0 |
Mixed | 70 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 67 | 0 |
Other ethnic group | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 |
White | 1,380 | 14 | 14 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1,334 | 2 |
Unrecorded | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Not stated | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
The following two tables show the number of recalled prisoners serving an IPP sentence at 31 March 2021, by gender and ethnicity, in England and Wales. All recalled IPP prisoners are post tariff as it is not possible to release an IPP prisoner prior to the expiry of their minimum tariff date. The total number of IPP prisoners recorded in these two tables is 1,350.
Table 3
Gender | Number |
Male | 1,327 |
Female | 23 |
Table 4
Ethnicity | Number |
Asian or Asian British | 42 |
Black or Black British | 161 |
Mixed | 74 |
Other ethnic group/Not Stated | 4 |
White | 1,069 |
The table below shows the number of unreleased prisoners serving an IPP sentence at 31 March 2021, by security category and the number of years to their tariff expiry, in England and Wales. The total number of IPP prisoners recorded in the below table is 1,784.
Table 5
Security Category | Number (Row Total) | Less than 1 year | 1 year to less than 2 years | 2 year to less than 3 years | 3 year to less than 4 years | 4 year to less than 5 years | 5 or more years | Tariff expired | Tariff unavailable |
A | 17 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 0 |
B | 323 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 309 | 0 |
C | 871 | 7 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 831 | 2 |
D | 548 | 14 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 526 | 0 |
Females (open and closed) | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 0 |
Others | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
A prisoner’s individual needs in relation to offending behaviour and resettlement, or their individual circumstances (such as medical requirements) may result in an individual being held in a prison of a higher category than their own approved category. Prisoners will not be allocated to a prison of a lower security category than the security category assigned to them personally.
Notes for all figures:
- These figures have been drawn from the Public Protection Unit Database and Prison-NOMIS held by Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service. As with any large scale recording systems, the figures are subject to possible errors with data migration and processing.
- Tariff refers to the length of time between date of sentence and tariff expiry date.