Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the rate of (1) deferral, and (2) adjournments, of cases by the Parole Board broken down by local region in each year since 2017.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
The Parole Board has confirmed the breakdown of Deferral and Adjournment rates for oral hearings since 2017 in the table below. The Parole Board will publish data for 2021/22 in their 2021/22 Annual Report. The Parole Board reports on national rates and does not produce this data by regions.
| Conducted Hearings | Completed Oral Hearings | Deferred & Adjourned Hearings | Deferred Split | Adjourned Split |
2017-18 | 8137 | 5638 | 2499 | 744 | 1755 |
2018-19 | 7903 | 5380 | 2523 | 488 | 2035 |
2019-20 | 8264 | 5294 | 2970 | 271 | 2699 |
2020-21 | 9202 | 6421 |
| 167 | 2614 |
*Percentage of conducted oral hearings
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish advice given by the Parole Board to Parole Board members to increase their confidence in taking Imprisonment for Public Protection release decisions since June 2019.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
Since June 2019, the Parole Board issued the following guidance to support their members in making decisions in all type of cases, including Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP):
These guidelines explain the different types of sentence and cases which Parole Board members may come across. They provide details of the possible Parole Board decision outcomes. Member guidelines are available on the Parole Board’s website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/parole-board.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many recalls of those with an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence have subsequently resulted in (1) no further action taken, (2) charges dropped, and (3) the individual being found not guilty.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
This information is not readily available. To answer the question, a manual check would be needed of each instance of an offender serving an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence on licence being recalled to custody, where the reason given includes further charges (approximately 1,900). This could be completed only at disproportionate cost.
An offender on an IPP licence is recalled to custody where they breach their licence conditions in a way which indicates escalating risk, such that the supervising officer determines that they can no longer be safely managed in the community.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many individuals sentenced to Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) since 2005 died whilst (1) serving their sentence, or (2) whilst out on licence in the community; and what were the causes of death in each case.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
A total of 231 prisoners have died in custody while serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence. Their causes of death are set out in the attached table. This data runs from January 2005 to December 2021.
The Government does not hold collated data about the deaths of offenders on licence in the community. I regret that the data requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Every death in prison custody and the community is a tragedy that deeply affects families, staff and other prisoners. We are committed to doing all we can to prevent deaths in prison custody and of offenders under supervision.