IPP Prisoners: Recall System
Debate between Lord Lemos and Lord Moylan(1 week, 5 days ago)
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Lord Lemos (Lab)
Yes, we will. I can reassure the noble Baroness about that. Following the Lord Chancellor’s announcement on IPPs, victim liaison officers have started to issue notices to victims, with 375 notices already issued.
Lord Moylan (Con)
My Lords, over the last few decades, the use of recall by the Probation Service has moved from being a last resort to something that is much more common. That seems to me a policy and process decision in which Ministers could rightly intervene without getting involved in individual cases. Is the Minister willing to agree that Ministers should look at how frequently recall is used by the Probation Service, with a view to restoring the earlier position?
Lord Lemos (Lab)
I agree with all that, except the last phrase about going back to the earlier position. We introduced the risk-assessed recall review because we wanted to put an end to the situation the noble Lord describes in which, once people are recalled, they face a long period before their case is reconsidered. That is what gives rise to the feeling that they are in effect serving a new sentence. This is not what we want, and it is why we tried to mitigate those delays. On the wider point about policy, we are monitoring these trends and will keep looking at them.