56 murders committed by suspects on bail

A total of 56 murders were carried out by people bailed by the courts while awaiting trial for other crimes – a 37 per cent rise on 2011, according to Ministry of Justice figures obtained by the Daily Mail.

Another 16 people on bail were convicted of manslaughter, and 684 for serious violent assaults, the paper said.

Meanwhile, it was reported that five killers released on licence have murdered again in the last four years.

They were among 1,900 criminals handed life sentences who live under supervision in the community, according to a written answer to MP Philip Davies.

Justice Minister Jeremy Wright said: “Reoffending has been too high for too long and we are introducing significant reforms to the way offenders are rehabilitated and managed in the community.

“From 2015 all prisoners will for the first time receive a minimum 12 months supervision on release and hi-tech GPS satellite tags will also allow us to keep a much closer eye on them.

“Our changes will see the best of the voluntary, public and private sector working together to cut reoffending.”

Andrew Dawson, George Johnson, Ernest Wright, David Cook and Desmond Lee killed people in the last four years after previously being jailed for murder, The Sun reported.

In his written response to Mr Davies, Mr Wright said: “In the last two years there were four murders committed by four offenders on life licence, two in each year.

“To provide some context, there are around 1,900 life sentence prisoners on supervision in the community at any one time.”

According to the Mail, 60,129 crimes committed last year were by people who were on bail. Of these, 42,302 were classified as indictable offences, the most serious. A total of 111 rapes last year were carried out by people on bail, as well as 166 sex offences against children and 6,372 home break-ins.