Parole System Root and Branch Review
(asked on 4th April 2022) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of cases that will fall into the “top tier” of highest risk offenders in each year, following their proposal in the Root and Branch Review of the Parole System, published on 30 March.
Answered by
Baroness Scott of Bybrook
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Alongside the Root and Branch Review, the government published historic release data for the top-tier cohort of parole cases. This can be found in the accompanying attachment.
The data shows the number of parole reviews completed for top-tier cases since 2016/17 broken down by offence type and how many of the completed reviews resulted in a release decision. This can be summarised as follows:
Year | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 |
Total completed reviews (top-tier cohort) | 2,014 | 2,043 | 1,851 | 1,777 | 1,975 |
Release decisions (top tier cohort) | 640 | 710 | 606 | 598 | 699 |
Total completed reviews (all cases) | 12,998 | 12,080 | 11,382 | 13,209 | 15,644 |
It is anticipated that release decisions in top-tier cases are the most likely cases to be caught by the new powers for ministerial oversight. The data illustrates that the new policies will apply to a small percentage of the Parole Board’s overall caseload.