Ministry of Justice written question – answered at on 12 September 2017.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will give the Parole Board the authority to decide when a hearing can be held to consider the cases of those with imprisonment for public protection sentences who are still in prison.
The Secretary of State sets by delegated authority to officials the next review date of prisoners serving the IPP sentence and who have completed their tariff. He does so with regard to the work (including but not only courses) which the prisoner needs to complete in order to reduce his risk and so present the Parole Board with evidence to support release.
IPP offenders are entitled to be considered for release at least every two years or less once their tariff has expired. The Secretary of State may set a short review date, where the prisoner has completed risk reduction work and so has the evidence which the Parole Board needs to direct his release.
We have been working closely with the Parole Board to process these cases as quickly as possible and, earlier this year, we set up a new unit focused on this and improving the efficiency of the parole process.
This work is continuing to achieve results, with 576 IPP releases in 2016; the highest number of annual releases since the sentence became available in 2005.”
Yes2 people think so
No2 people think not
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