Ministry of Justice written question – answered at on 9 February 2017.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of trends in the number of prisoners temporarily released on resettlement overnight release licences in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.
Data on the number of prisoners released on temporary license (ROTL), of which resettlement overnight release is one type, is published quarterly, and data for each year going back to 2002 is published on gov.uk.
We reviewed the approach to ROTL in 2013 to ensure risks are being managed effectively and there is now a greater focus on: linking the ROTL activity to the individual’s sentence plan; countering any presumption to temporary release; and, an improved risk assessment and management approach, particularly with the most serious offenders. This has, however, had an unintended consequence – restrictions to improve risk management of the most serious offenders, have resulted in lower risk offenders not being able to benefit from ROTL.
We will maintain the improvements made while allowing governors greater discretion in how they tailor their ROTL regime to the circumstances of each offender. We know that three of the most powerful factors helping to keep ex-offenders from re-offending are a good job, strong family ties and a stable place to live - ROTL makes all of them easier to achieve. Public protection is our top priority and we have no intention of changing the full risk-assessment offenders on ROTL must undergo and any non-compliance will be dealt with robustly.
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