Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s Analytical Summary on absconding incidents, published in November 2014, how many prisoners with a previous absconding incident and already in open conditions were assessed by the National Offender Management Service in the last three years; how many of those prisoners were allowed to remain in open conditions; and what crimes those prisoners have committed.

We do not hold information centrally on how many offenders with an abscond history were assessed for open conditions over the last three years.

No prisoner will be transferred to open conditions, whether he has an abscond history or not, without an assessment. For indeterminate sentence prisoners (ISPs – those serving life or Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences), the principal means of approval for transfer to open conditions 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.

Determinate sentenced prisoners are assessed for their suitability for open conditions by experienced prison staff with relevant input from offender managers and other professionals within the prison. The assessment will consider the extent to which the prisoner has reduced identified risks and any intelligence or other information that provides evidence of the prisoner’s trustworthiness for conditions of low security. 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 made changes to tighten up the system as a matter of urgency. Prisoners are now no longer eligible for transfer to open conditions if they have previously absconded from open prisons; or if they have failed to return or have reoffended whilst released on temporary licence, unless there are exceptional circumstances.