Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to address the failure of the Ministry of Justice to include all relevant information in the dossier it provided to the Parole Board in the Worboys case.

Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) omitted the sentencing remarks from the criminal trial, one of the mandatory documents for each parole dossier, in accordance with the Parole Board Rules. HMPPS implemented fresh and robust checks on every dossier, before the High Court handed down its judgement, to ensure that dossiers are complete for the Parole Board to undertake its consideration of each case.

HMPPS has issued guidance to assist report writers in cases where the offences of which an offender has been convicted may not provide to the Parole Board a comprehensive understanding of the offender’s risk.

I can provide reassurance that her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service had implemented fresh and robust checks on every dossier, before the High Court handed down its judgement, to ensure that dossiers are complete for the Parole Board to undertake its consideration of each case.

It is not usual to include police evidence, or information in respect of civil actions, in the dossier submitted to the Parole Board. As the High Court said, this was an exceptional case, as there were a very high number of complaints to the police, and two of Worboys’ victims brought a successful action against the Metropolitan Police for its failures to properly investigate their complaints.

Therefore, in the light of this judgement, the Secretary of State has pledged that all relevant evidence of past offending should be included in the dossiers submitted to the Parole Board, including, possibly, police evidence, so it can be robustly tested at each Parole Board hearing. Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service is in the process of issuing new guidance to ensure that this is absolutely clear to those submitting evidence.