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Life Imprisonment

Question for Ministry of Justice

UIN HL1688, tabled on 12 July 2022

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people received a life sentence with a tariff of between 10 years to less than 15 years, and were (1) under 18, (2) 18 to 20, (3) 21 to 24, (4) 25 to 29, (5) 30 to 34, (6) 35 to 39, (7) 40–49, (8) 50 to 59, (9) 60 to 69, and (10) 70 and older, at the time of sentencing in each year since 2002.

Answered on

26 July 2022

By law, prisoners serving life and other indeterminate sentences must complete their tariff in custody and thereafter be released only when the Parole Board concludes that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public for them to remain confined to custody. The Government is committed to supporting prisoners to reduce their risk and so progress towards safe release, but the priority is always to protect the public.

HL1687

The following table shows the number of prisoners that received a life sentence and were (1) under 18, (2) 18 to 20, (3) 21 to 24, (4) 25 to 29, (5) 30 to 34, (6) 35 to 39, (7) 40 to 49, (8) 50 to 59, (9) 60 to 69, and (10) 70 years of age and older, at the time of sentencing in each year since 2002.

Age at Sentence

Year of sentence

Under 18

18 to 20

21 to 24

25 to 29

30 to 34

35 to 39

40 to 49

50 to 59

60 to 69

70 and over

2002

14

55

88

98

95

94

95

33

10

*

2003

11

55

75

87

86

89

98

34

4

*

2004

16

55

95

105

86

90

114

26

16

*

2005

31

64

109

84

93

99

99

46

9

0

2006

22

65

101

114

78

75

112

30

6

*

2007

25

75

90

77

58

48

78

53

7

5

2008

30

56

95

84

67

53

100

36

19

0

2009

27

67

73

78

55

45

79

29

8

0

2010

18

45

60

78

55

39

59

28

10

*

2011

16

34

59

75

52

42

65

36

13

*

2012

15

49

63

73

61

39

75

34

12

*

2013

14

37

56

69

67

51

67

35

13

*

2014

21

44

77

74

45

40

85

51

9

6

2015

14

40

51

56

53

45

70

31

10

4

2016

10

45

64

58

50

46

86

43

16

3

2017

12

41

59

62

50

55

63

32

9

5

2018

29

54

62

57

57

60

74

46

15

*

2019

30

60

51

76

64

57

66

41

8

5

2020

22

42

53

45

35

37

45

23

3

*

2021

27

77

67

79

62

49

70

23

15

*

HL1688

The following table shows the number of prisoners that received a life sentence with a tariff of between 10 years to less than 15 years, and were (1) under 18, (2) 18 to 20, (3) 21 to 24, (4) 25 to 29, (5) 30 to 34, (6) 35 to 39, (7) 40–49, (8) 50 to 59, (9) 60 to 69, and (10) 70 years of age and older, at the time of sentencing in each year since 2002.

Age at Sentence

Year of sentence

Under 18

18 to 20

21 to 24

25 to 29

30 to 34

35 to 39

40 to 49

50 to 59

60 to 69

70 and over

2002

4

19

38

37

27

26

28

6

3

0

2003

4

20

21

21

24

25

24

4

0

*

2004

6

23

35

31

33

28

35

6

6

*

2005

10

26

38

29

24

26

24

17

*

0

2006

6

23

30

33

27

22

26

11

3

0

2007

11

37

39

25

27

10

26

23

*

*

2008

21

28

36

25

19

18

38

13

4

0

2009

14

32

26

20

20

14

24

6

4

0

2010

12

8

12

10

9

12

15

8

*

*

2011

12

9

17

16

12

11

14

7

8

0

2012

8

9

10

19

13

8

20

12

*

*

2013

7

11

3

12

12

5

17

11

4

0

2014

7

10

8

8

8

9

17

12

*

3

2015

8

5

10

8

12

4

12

7

3

*

2016

4

12

11

13

9

7

13

11

3

0

2017

5

3

5

7

5

8

8

7

3

*

2018

16

6

8

7

7

7

9

7

5

*

2019

12

9

3

6

8

8

11

4

*

4

2020

5

8

*

6

5

5

7

4

*

0

2021

9

11

7

10

6

4

11

3

*

*

HL1689

The following table shows the number of prisoners that received a life sentence with a tariff of between 15 years to less than 20 years, and were (1) under 18, (2) 18 to 20, (3) 21 to 24, (4) 25 to 29, (5) 30 to 34, (6) 35 to 39, (7) 40 to 49, (8) 50 to 59, (9) 60 to 69, and (10) 70 years of age and older, at the time of sentencing in each year since 2002.

Age at Sentence

Year of sentence

Under 18

18 to 20

21 to 24

25 to 29

30 to 34

35 to 39

40 to 49

50 to 59

60 to 69

70 and over

2002

0

4

15

10

10

11

8

5

*

0

2003

*

3

14

9

16

14

19

*

0

0

2004

0

11

23

23

12

13

15

*

*

0

2005

*

6

17

18

22

12

10

9

*

0

2006

*

14

16

24

8

10

15

3

*

0

2007

3

19

20

22

12

15

16

8

*

0

2008

*

18

22

19

12

15

17

5

*

0

2009

5

15

22

20

16

16

26

9

*

0

2010

*

16

19

28

18

8

21

8

*

0

2011

3

16

14

30

14

13

22

11

*

0

2012

6

16

18

9

19

7

19

9

4

0

2013

*

10

23

14

20

15

18

6

*

0

2014

5

10

24

19

6

8

21

13

*

*

2015

4

14

12

12

13

8

12

9

*

0

2016

3

10

17

6

12

9

27

11

6

*

2017

5

27

16

14

15

16

14

5

*

*

2018

10

21

12

14

14

21

16

14

4

0

2019

17

25

11

23

13

17

19

13

*

*

2020

13

20

10

5

10

6

11

5

0

0

2021

14

36

14

22

21

12

18

8

5

0

HL1690

The following table shows the number of prisoners that received a life sentence with a tariff of between 20 years to less than 25 years, and were (1) under 18, (2) 18 to 20, (3) 21 to 24, (4) 25 to 29, (5) 30 to 34, (6) 35 to 39, (7) 40 to 49, (8) 50 to 59, (9) 60 to 69, and (10) 70 and older, at the time of sentencing in each year since 2002.

Age at Sentence

Year of sentence

Under 18

18 to 20

21 to 24

25 to 29

30 to 34

35 to 39

40 to 49

50 to 59

60 to 69

70 and over

2002

0

0

*

*

*

*

3

0

*

0

2003

0

*

4

6

3

*

*

*

0

0

2004

0

*

5

11

*

4

4

*

*

0

2005

0

4

10

4

6

8

5

3

*

0

2006

0

9

12

11

7

*

9

*

0

0

2007

0

7

7

*

4

*

*

6

0

0

2008

*

5

15

14

9

5

14

*

0

0

2009

*

10

10

11

6

4

10

4

0

0

2010

*

11

13

20

12

6

8

3

0

0

2011

0

7

10

15

8

9

11

6

0

0

2012

0

16

15

15

10

6

19

7

*

0

2013

0

8

14

14

9

11

7

9

*

0

2014

*

11

14

12

12

10

16

10

*

*

2015

0

10

10

12

9

13

8

3

4

0

2016

0

11

24

13

6

9

14

7

*

0

2017

0

7

15

15

11

6

10

7

0

0

2018

0

18

15

15

16

10

11

6

*

0

2019

0

13

19

18

14

8

13

10

*

0

2020

*

11

23

16

10

5

13

3

0

0

2021

*

11

24

18

9

10

13

*

3

0

Notes for all figures in the tables provided above:

  1. Due to rounding, the interquartile range may not equal the difference between the third and first quartiles.

  1. Figures do not include whole-life orders.

  1. Tariff length is the time between date of sentence and tariff expiry date.

  1. Numbers are subject to revision as more data become available.

  1. An asterisk (*) has been used to suppress values of one or two. This is to prevent the disclosure of individual information. Further disclosure control may be completed where this alone is not sufficient.

  1. The figures in these tables 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. Data has been supplied for as many of the requested years as it is possible to provide within cost limits; earlier years may not be available due to changes in recording over time.