Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish the criteria his Department uses to decide on the appropriateness of releasing an offender from prison as part of its reforms to the parole process; and if he will make a statement.

The Government’s Root and Branch Review of the Parole System, published on 30 March, includes a proposal to expand the statutory release test to make it clear that public protection is the overriding consideration. Under the proposed reforms, the same statutory test will apply whether it is the Parole Board assessing the appropriateness of release or the Secretary of State exercising the proposed powers to oversee the decisions in top-tier cases. It is our intention to set out as part of the release test, on the face of the legislation, a list of statutory criteria to make it clear the factors that must be taken into account. That proposed list of criteria was published in the Root and Branch Review.