Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people resident in Birmingham at the point of their original sentencing are serving sentences of imprisonment for public protection; and as a proportion of that number, what the (a) ethnicity and (b) diagnosed (i) mental and (ii) physical health conditions are of those prisoners.

The Ministry of Justice does not hold centrally a record of those IPP prisoners who were residing in Birmingham at the point they were sentenced to their IPP.

The Ministry of Justice does hold the number of prisoners serving a sentence of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) and (a) their ethnicity in England and Wales, and I have provided the proportions as requested in the table below.

The Ministry of Justice does not hold centrally a record of the diagnosed mental and physical condition of serving IPP prisoners.

Every prison in England and Wales must adhere to the Equality Act 2010. This includes support for those with mental and physical health conditions, such as the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled persons, in accordance with the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Since April 2018, a National Partnership Agreement on Prison Healthcare has been in place, to deliver safe, decent, effective healthcare for offenders.

Our primary responsibility is to protect the public. Prisoners serving IPP sentences will be released only when the independent Parole Board concludes that the risk to the public is capable of being safely managed in the community under probation supervision.

IPP prisoners continue to have a high chance of a positive outcome from Parole Board hearings. In 2019/20 72% of Parole Board hearings resulted in either a recommendation for a transfer to an open prison or release. As of 30 June 2020, the number of unreleased IPP prisoners who have completed their minimum tariff was 1,856. This is down from 2,136 on 30 June 2019.

Proportion of IPPs in prison by ethnicity as at 30 June 2020