Royal Commission on Criminal Justice

Debate between Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick and Lord Keen of Elie

Wednesday 3rd June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick (CB)]

My Lords, while I accept the Government’s best intentions to deliver justice, could the Minister inform the House of the precise numbers of prisoners still being held under IPP provisions, and the disproportion of black prisoners that IPP continues to blight despite its removal in law? When will the Government end this appalling scourge of denied justice? Will the royal commission finally resolve it?

[Lord Keen of Elie]

The position with IPP prisoners has been addressed frequently in the past. Of course the legislation in 2012 was not and could not be retrospective. I cannot give a precise number as at today’s date of IPP prisoners held nor of their ethnic backgrounds, but I will write to the noble Lord with up-to-date information and place a copy of that letter in the Library of the House.