Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of checks on decisions made by (a) prison governors and (b) other prison and probation authorities on the release of prisoners.

Most prisoners are released automatically or by the Parole Board but prisoners serving standard determinate sentences of at least 12 weeks, but less than four years may be considered for release before their automatic release date under the Home Detention Curfew (HDC) scheme. Decisions on HDC are taken on behalf of the Secretary of State by the prison Governor or delegated decision-maker, informed by a report from probation who assess the suitability of release to the proposed address.

HDC provides a managed transition from custody to the community for lower risk offenders serving sentences of less than four years. Offenders are released subject to strict licence conditions including electronically monitored curfew and only once a robust risk management plan is in place.

The operation of the scheme is kept under review and a new Policy Framework was issued in June 2023. This added specified offences linked to domestic abuse to the list of offences that presume offenders unsuitable for the scheme. This followed changes we made last year to mandate checks with police and children’s services for domestic abuse and safeguarding risk information in all HDC cases. The new Framework, building on learning since it was last issued in 2019, also made the assessment more robust, ensuring account is taken of the risks presented overall, and not just to those at the address; and that all necessary information-sharing takes place before there is a decision to release on HDC.