Imprisonment for Public Protection
Debate between Lord Hope of Craighead and Lord Timpson(2 weeks, 4 days ago)
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Lord Timpson (Lab)
I thank my noble friend for his kind words, and I look forward to seeing a number of noble Lords at the IPP Peers meeting on Monday. I will take away the point on the progression board that he mentions. However, I reiterate that we need prisons that work and a Probation Service that works. One of the things that I been focused on is performance in the justice system. I am pleased to inform Members of your Lordships’ House that 70% of our prisons and 90% of our probation regions are now performing better than they were. Self-harm and assaults on staff are down. To me, all that shows that we are getting to the right place, which will make it easier for often complex prisoners to get on so they can get out and stay out.
Lord Hope of Craighead (CB)
Will the noble Lord say how many IPP prisoners he has met and talked to within the last four weeks, and what he has learned from those conversations?
Lord Timpson (Lab)
The last IPP prisoner I met was in HMP Birmingham—I think I was there three weeks ago. He was back on recall and facing further charges. The nature of the conversation was quite troubling, because I learned from him that he felt safer in prison than in the community. Also, he did not think that open prisons were always that good for long-term complex prisoners, which surprised me because I am a big fan of open prisons, having recruited lots of people from them. I went away with the challenge of how we ensure that IPP prisoners, when they go to open conditions, are not brought back. Too many go there quite quickly and then come back.
Imprisonment for Public Protection Prisoners
Debate between Lord Hope of Craighead and Lord Timpson(4 weeks ago)
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Lord Timpson (Lab)
It is very important that we safely release people and that they are safe when they are in our care. That is especially so for IPP prisoners—as well as their families who are also trying to support them. Self-harm for both men and women is down in our prisons. The number of deaths up to March 2026 was also down, by 12%. Even so, these are people—and people who we need to help. We need to make sure that we have that wraparound support for them. They are often people who are unwell and, whether they are in secure hospital or not, they need our support.
Lord Hope of Craighead (CB)
My Lords, has thought been given to the support that families can give to these prisoners? Their support can be important, particularly on release, in minimising the risk of their having to be recalled because they have broken the rules.
Lord Timpson (Lab)
The noble and learned Lord is exactly right: families play a huge role—it is employment, it is housing and it is families. One important thing about open prisons, for example, is that prisoners can go out on day release and reintegrate. Some 193,000 children are affected by parental imprisonment, so we need to make sure that we help both the prisoner and their family on that journey.
IPP Sentences
Debate between Lord Hope of Craighead and Lord Timpson(10 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Lord Hope of Craighead (CB)
My Lords, will the Minister inform the House of how many of these prisoners are now refusing to engage with the processes required to satisfy the Parole Board’s current tests for release because they have lost confidence in the system? If they have, is it not time to think again?
Lord Timpson (Lab)
The Parole Board is the best way to determine whether someone’s risk is sufficient to be managed in the community. It is important that when IPP prisoners go in front of the Parole Board, they are prepared in a way to have a successful release. That is why the IPP action plan is the right way to go, and why we are seeing significant increases in the number of people released and rereleased. We need to make sure that the IPP action plan works but also—this is one of the things I am doing for most of my days—that our prisons are good prisons that rehabilitate people and that when they leave, they do not come back.