Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 14 December to Question 126796 on Prison Sentence, for what reason IPP prisoners cannot be transferred to alternative sentences.

Transferring those prisoners still serving IPP sentences on to other types of sentence would raise issues of public protection, as it would result in the automatic release of a large number of prisoners who have been assessed by the Parole Board to be unsafe for release. For example, for those who had passed their tariff expiry date, this would result in their immediate automatic early release with no supervision in the community on licence.