Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps he has taken to reduce the number of people serving sentences of imprisonment for public protection after their prison tariff has expired.

IPP sentences were introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 for offences committed after April 2005. They were abolished in 2012 by the Coalition Government. IPP prisoners will be released whe the Parole Board is satisfied that they can be safely managed in the community. It is a priority for us to help remaining IPP prisoners progress towards release, including by ensuring that their parole reviews take place on time, through greater efficiency in the parole process, and by giving them the opportunity to complete relevant interventions and work. In 2015 there were 512 IPP releases - the highest number of annual releases since the sentence became available.