About this data

Source: Ministry of Justice, Offender management statistics quarterly: releases tables

• Most people serving a fixed-length (determinate) prison sentence are released automatically part way through it, and spend the rest of the sentence on licence in the community, where they can be recalled to prison.
• Time served is measured from when someone first entered prison for the case, so it includes time spent on remand before sentencing (which counts towards the sentence). The Ministry of Justice says this makes it an overestimate. For very short sentences, it can exceed 100%.
• The Ministry of Justice changed its prison records system in 2015, It also publishes figures for 2002 to 2015 from its previous system, but these aren't comparable, so they're not shown.
• The share served fell in 2024 and 2025 after the government moved the release point for many sentences from half to 40% in September 2024 (SDS40), to ease prison overcrowding. From October 2026, under the Sentencing Act 2026, most people serving standard sentences are released after one-third.
• Time spent back in prison after being recalled is not included.

This chart appears in Prisons.