Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been transferred to open conditions following a decision made only by the Ministry of Justice Public Protection Unit in each of the last four years.

There are two means by which indeterminate sentenced prisoners (ISPs – both those serving life and indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPPs)) – are considered for transfer to open conditions.

The principal means is by way of a positive recommendation from the independent Parole Board, which falls to officials either to accept or reject on behalf of the Secretary of State, under agreed delegated authority and in accordance with policy agreed by the Secretary of State. However, ISPs may also apply to progress to open conditions without a positive recommendation from the Parole Board being sought, where they can show exceptional progress in reducing their risk. Each application is determined on its merits under agreed delegated authority by officials in the Offender Management and Public Protection Group in the Ministry of Justice. The criteria for progression in these circumstances are as follows:

§ the prisoner's parole dossier must contain evidence that the prisoner has made significant progress in addressing all risk factors; and

§ there must be a consensus amongst report writers that the prisoner is suitable and safe to be transferred to open conditions; and

§ there must be no areas of concern identified by report writers which would clearly benefit from further exploration by an oral hearing of the Parole Board; and

§ the prisoner must demonstrate in his/her representations that there are clear benefits to being transferred to open conditions immediately rather than following the established process.

The data for the last four years are as follows:

In 2013, 20% of prisoners who applied for a transfer through this route were granted a move to open conditions.

These data are taken from an administrative casework system.

We do not centrally hold data on the total number of prisoners transferred from closed to open prisons for the time period requested. Where this is available, the information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as it would involve interrogating the movement records of every determinate sentenced prisoner who has transferred to an open establishment since 2010.

Decisions to transfer determinate sentence prisoners to open conditions are taken by population managers within the National Offender Management Service. Only prisoners who have been thoroughly risk assessed and categorised as suitable for open conditions will be considered for transfer to open prisons. Decisions on re-categorising prisoners as suitable for open conditions are taken by experienced prison staff with input from offender managers, healthcare and other professional staff using recent information about the prisoner including behaviour while in closed conditions, security and intelligence information and any other risk information that might demonstrate the prisoner's proven trustworthiness. The cases of determinate sentence prisoners are not referred to the Parole Board for advice and decisions are not taken by Ministers.

Determinate sentence prisoners should not generally be moved to open prison if they have more than two years to serve to their earliest release date, unless assessment of a prisoner's individual risks and needs support earlier categorisation to open conditions. Such cases must have the reasons for their categorisation fully documented and confirmed in writing by the Governing Governor.

The public have understandable concerns about the failure of some prisoners to return from temporary release from open prison. Keeping the public safe is our priority and we will not allow the actions of a small minority of offenders to undermine public confidence in the prison system. The number of temporary release failures remains very low; less that one failure in every 1,000 releases and about five in every 100,000 releases involving alleged offending, but we take each and every incident seriously. The Government has already ordered immediate changes to tighten up the system as a matter of urgency. With immediate effect, prisoners will no longer be transferred to open conditions if they have previously absconded from open prisons; or if they have failed to return or reoffended whilst released on temporary licence.