Parole Board for England and Wales

Thursday 22nd January 2015 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Andrew Selous)]

My noble Friend the Minister of State for civil justice and legal policy, Lord Faulks QC, has made the following written ministerial statement.

On 18 November 2013 the triennial review of the Parole Board for England and Wales was announced in Parliament. I am pleased to announce the conclusion of the review and publication of the report today.

The review has concluded that there is a continuing role for the Parole Board and that it should continue as an executive non-departmental public body. The Parole Board has been assessed as having a ‘good’ overall rating for the standards of corporate governance and the recommendations from the review relate to three areas i) roles and responsibilities ii) communication and iii) conduct and propriety, where it has been identified that improvements can be made in order to more closely follow good practice for public bodies.

The triennial review has been carried out with the participation of a wide range of stakeholders and users, in addition to the Parole Board itself. The launch of the review was publicised on my Department’s website and stakeholders were invited to contribute through a call for evidence and through meetings. In addition to the project board which oversaw the review, a critical friends group challenged the evidence used to make conclusions. An independent peer reviewer also challenged the evidence for stage 2 of the review.

I am grateful to all who contributed to this triennial review. The final report will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. The report will also be available at: http://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/parole-board-triennial-review.

It is also available online at: http://www.parliament.uk/writtenstatements.

[HCWS216]