Annual statistics of prisoners aged 50 or over: FOI release

Information requested

For each year from 2020 to 2025 inclusive:

1. The number of prisoners aged 50 or over serving an Order for Lifelong Restriction (OLR).
2. The number of prisoners aged 50 or over serving a life sentence.

Response

The table below provides the information you requested. This was drawn from the Accredited Official Statistics source data using the interactive analysis tool [https://scotland.shinyapps.io/sg-prison population-statistics/]. I have provided a count of individuals who spent any time in the course of the year serving the requested sentence types. These data are aggregated by financial year and I have provided the most recently available annual statistics.

The group "Other indeterminate" is almost exclusively Order for Lifelong Restriction, however this category includes the possibility of individuals serving the previous "Imprisonment for Public Protection" sentences in past years.

More information about the content and quality of this data source is provided in the associated Technical Manual [https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-prison-population-statistics/].

Scottish Prison Population Statistics 2024-25: Individuals by Index Sentences aged 50+

	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25
Life	327	334	365	378	385
Other indeterminate	61	63	69	71	71

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.