Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the parole board report on IPP prison sentences.

The Parole Board published interim guidance on 12 November 2024 to provide Parole Board panels with points to consider when undertaking parole reviews for prisoners sentenced to an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) or Detention for Public Protection (DPP) sentence. It assists panels with identifying ways of working to effectively manage such cases fairly and justly, whilst maintaining a focus on risk and the test for release and taking public protection as the over-riding priority.

On 15 November 2024, the Government published the updated IPP Action Plan, which puts a stronger emphasis on effective frontline delivery in our prisons. It will ensure that prisoners serving IPP sentences have robust and effective sentence plans, which they are actively engaging with, and that they are in the correct prison to access the right interventions and rehabilitative services.