Asked by: Baroness Burt of Solihull (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in establishing an active case management approach in public protection casework, further to the Joint IPP Action Plan published by Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service and the Parole Board in June 2019.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
The IPP Action Plan is regularly reviewed to ensure that it is responsive to the needs of those serving IPP sentences, whether in prison or in the community. A large number of IPP prisoners have been released each year since the IPP Action Plan was first introduced in 2016, and the Plan will be refreshed, reviewed and republished after careful consideration of the forthcoming Justice Select Committee’s Report and recommendations.
The Public Protection Casework Section in HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) HQ has implemented active case management, which is directed towards ensuring that probation and prison staff comply with directions from Parole Board Panels in a timely fashion.
Best practice ideals, based on an initiative that started in prisons in the East of England Region, were developed and rolled out for use in a number of prisons prior to the pandemic. The roll out was then unavoidably disrupted by the exceptional delivery models which had to be implemented on the grounds of public health. Progress of the best practice ideals will be reviewed as part of the wider action plan following consideration of the Justice Select Committee’s report and recommendations.
Offenders subject to IPP sentences are eligible for electronic monitoring following release on licence, where considered necessary and proportionate by the Parole Board. The additional investment of £183m in the expansion of electronic monitoring will also increase the availability of electronic monitoring for IPP offenders. Those whose risk is linked to alcohol are eligible for alcohol monitoring on licence, which was introduced in Wales in November and will be rolled out to England this summer. IPP releases will also be eligible for a project targeting high-risk domestic abuse perpetrators, where they will have their whereabouts monitored using GPS tags to protect victims, and potential future victims, from further trauma. The project will begin in 2023 and we expect to tag around 3,500 offenders.
HM Prison and Probation Service has developed a dataset and data dashboard, which is shared on a quarterly basis with Probation Regions and Prison Groups to support them in their efforts to monitor and manage their IPP populations, both in prisons and the community. The dashboard is still evolving and kept under review, as we identify new ways to capture additional key management information and present it in such a way as to be the most helpful to the operational line.
The following table shows the number of progression panels (lifers and IPPs) that have taken place in each Probation region by year since June 2019*: During the COVID-19 pandemic, and in accordance with measures mandated in the interests of public health, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) implemented exceptional delivery models which inevitably had some impact on all operational work.
Probation Region | The number of progression panels held (Lifers and IPPs) | ||||
01/06/2019 to 31/12/2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 01/01/2022 to 22/03/2022 | Total | |
East Midlands Region | 114 | 466 | 241 | 23 | 844 |
East of England | 224 | 715 | 554 | 107 | 1,600 |
Greater Manchester | 294 | 472 | 291 | 36 | 1,093 |
Kent Surrey Sussex Region | 129 | 529 | 426 | 79 | 1,163 |
London | 236 | 551 | 629 | 134 | 1,550 |
National Security Division | - | * | 4 | * | 9 |
North East Region | 117 | 423 | 196 | 33 | 769 |
North West Region | 298 | 710 | 447 | 85 | 1,540 |
South Central | 156 | 271 | 328 | 79 | 834 |
South West | 111 | 469 | 197 | 137 | 914 |
Wales | 174 | 197 | 150 | 16 | 537 |
West Midlands Region | 304 | 868 | 522 | 126 | 1,820 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 170 | 635 | 422 | 72 | 1,299 |
Unknown Region | 3 | * | - | * | 16 |
Total | 2,330 | 6,322 | 4,407 | 929 | 13,988 |
*Notes:
1. Panels without a recorded outcome (from the point that an outcome was required to be recorded) were assumed to not have taken place.
2. Due to probation restructures in 2020 and 2021, a small number of panels could not be assigned to a region. These are recorded as 'Unknown Region'.
3. Disclosure control. An asterisk (*) has been used to suppress values of one or two. This is to prevent the disclosure of individual information. Further disclosure control may be completed where this alone is not sufficient.
4. Data sources and quality. The figures in these tables have been drawn from the Probation Case Management System, National Delius administrative, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.