Dear Mr Rooney

Re: Request under the 2000 Freedom of Information Act

Thank you for your letter of the 2^nd March 2009, in which you asked for the following information from the Ministry of Justice (MOJ):

1. What are the latest figures of prisoners serving life sentences,

     and of those, how many could be eligible for early release?

     2. Could you give me the cost per head of keeping a person in

     prison per annum?

     3. Could a person convicted in the UK and sentenced to life

     imprisonment, be forced or allowed to serve that sentence in

     another country not under the protection of the British Government?

     4. Are prison visits granted at the behest of the appropriate

     governor or are there regulations controlling visitation rights?

Your request has been handled under the Freedom of information Act 2000 (FOIA)

May I first apologise for the delay in responding to your request and hope this has not caused you any inconvenience.

1) The latest data on the prison population was published at the end of February; you can access this on our website at: http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/populationincustody.htm. 

This includes indeterminate prisoners.

The Parole Board are responsible for authorising the release of prisoners on life licence, this can also be accessed on the parole board website on: http://www.paroleboard.gov.uk.

2) The cost per head of keeping a person in prison is published; you can access this on the HMPS website at:

http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/news/index.asp?print=1&id=8737,22,6,22,0,0

As some of the information you are seeking is already available in the public domain, it is exempt from disclosure under Section 21 (Information reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means) of the FOIA.

3) A person convicted in the UK and sentenced to life imprisonment could serve his/her sentence in another country providing there is an international arrangement in place between the United Kingdom and the country concerned providing for the transfer of prisoners. Once transferred, the prisoner is subject to the laws of the receiving State. The United Kingdom has no further involvement in the administration of the sentence once transfer has taken place.

4) Yes regulated, but with the opportunity to increase provision according to local factors as I will explain below.

Under Prison Rules convicted prisoners have a statutory entitlement to one social visit on reception into prison and thereafter one visit every two weeks. Unconvicted prisoners should be allowed a social visit on at least three days a week. More information about visits can be found in Prison Service Order 4410 which is available on the Prison Service website at http://pso.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/PSO_4410_prisoner_communications_visits.doc.

These represent the baseline visits entitlement which a prisoner may claim. Wherever possible, prisons will be looking to provide more or improved social visits under local Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) Schemes. The policy document which refers to this is Prison Service Order (PSO) 4000. For ease of reference this can be accessed through the following link http://pso.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/PSO_4000_incentives_and_earned_privileges.doc .

Prisoners are placed on one of three levels within the IEP Scheme - basic, standard and enhanced - and, for example, the number or length of the social visits which they receive may depend upon their positioning on the Scheme. Social visits are identified as one of the key earnable privileges under the Scheme.  

As each IEP Scheme is applied locally there will be some variation in detail from one prison to another. One factor which might influence the number of social visits that those prisoners on the standard and enhanced levels of the IEP Scheme can be offered is the overall demand for social visits throughout the prison.

If you are unhappy with the result of your request for information, you may request an internal review within two calendar months of the date of this letter by writing to : Data Access and Compliance Unit, Information Directorate, Ministry of Justice, 6^th Floor, 102 Petty France, London SW1H 9AJ.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Ms N Amadi

Data Access & Compliance Unit

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