Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what forecast they have made of the number of people who will be in prison serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence having been recalled to custody, in each of the next five years.

The Government is committed to the protection of the public and the effective management of offenders. By law, prisoners serving indeterminate sentences who have completed their tariff will be released only when the Parole Board concludes that it is no longer necessary on the grounds of public protection for them to remain confined.

The HM Prison and Probation Service IPP Action Plan remains the route by which IPP offenders can be supported to progress towards safe release. As per the Government’s response to the Justice Select Committee’s report on the IPP sentence, work to refresh the Action Plan is already underway.

The modelling of the IPP population will be revised to take account of any potential impact delivered through the refreshed IPP Action Plan, due to be published at the end of March. The Action Plan promotes the progression of offenders serving the IPP sentence. Future prison population forecasts will factor in the impact of the refreshed Action Plan.