Select committee: Justice Committee
Recommendation 19
Third Report - IPP sentences
Published 28 Sep 2022
Paragraph 153
Addressed to Ministry of Justice
Justice Committee Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Concerns about available community resource for released offenders are valid and need to be taken into consideration. However, the lack of such resource is not a suitable reason for keeping people imprisoned indefinitely. We reiterate the words of our predecessor Committee: as a matter of policy and common sense rather than law, it is wholly indefensible to incarcerate prisoners of any category beyond the expiry of their tariff or their eligibility for release on licence simply because of a lack of resources on the part of HM Prison Service or the Parole Board.
From: Justice Committee, Third Report - IPP sentences (HC 266), paragraph 153, 28 September 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 9 February 2023 (deadline 28 November 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government accepts or partially accepts several recommendations, including a refreshed IPP Action Plan, but rejects resentencing and a shorter licence period, stating that resentencing would give rise to "an unacceptable risk to public protection".
- On the primary recommendation, the Government "has no plans to conduct a resentencing exercise", and states that the updated IPP Action Plan "remains the best option" for progression towards safe release.
- It accepts the recommendation for a new IPP Action Plan with clear performance measures, and says MoJ and HMPPS "will provide full details of the refreshed action plan and associated governance within the timeframe set out by the Committee" (by the end of Q1 2023).
- It rejects reducing the licence termination eligibility period from 10 to five years, but says it "will review the policy and practice for suspending supervision in appropriate cases".
- On recall, it partially accepts and does not accept that IPP offenders are recalled unnecessarily. It has asked the Chief Inspector of Probation to conduct a thematic inspection in 2023/24, and will share the Terms of Reference with the Committee once confirmed and agreed.