Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report entitled Imprisonment for Public Protection Interim Member Guidance, published by The Parole Board in October 2024, if she will take steps to support prisoners serving IPP sentences to move towards release.

The Parole Board published interim guidance to its Members on 12 November 2024 to help them in conducting parole reviews for prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) or Detention for Public Protection (DPP). The guidance encourages Members to conduct reviews fairly and justly, whilst maintaining a focus on ensuring that the statutory release test is met before issuing any release direction.

The Government published a refreshed IPP Action Plan on 15 November 2024, which puts a stronger emphasis on effective frontline delivery in our prisons and the Probation Service. The Action Plan will ensure that those serving IPP sentences have robust and effective sentence plans and that they are in the correct prison to access the right interventions and rehabilitative services. IPP prisoners need to engage with their sentence plans in order to reduce their risk of serious harm.

The Government also acted swiftly to commence the IPP measures in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, which led to the automatic termination of licence for 1,742 cases on 1 November 2024. On that same day we also commenced the new power for the Secretary of State to re-release recalled IPP offenders executively without referral to the Parole Board, where the statutory release test is met. As of 1 February 2025, all the IPP measures in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 are in force.