Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of Parole Board recommendations on moving (a) prisoners serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence and (b) other prisoners to open conditions were rejected by his Department in each of the last 12 months.

For many years, the Secretary of State has asked the independent Parole Board for advice on whether a prisoner serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) or a life sentence is suitable for transfer to open conditions. Where the Parole Board recommends that a prisoner is suitable, the Secretary of State is not bound to accept the recommendation, and it is the Secretary of State who is ultimately responsible for determining whether a life or IPP prisoner is safe to be managed in an open prison. In making that decision, the Secretary of State takes account of the Parole Board’s recommendation and needs evidence to justify rejecting the recommendation.

The following tables provide the number and proportion of recommendations made by the Parole Board which were rejected in each month between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 for prisoners serving (a) an IPP sentence and (b) a life sentence.

Number and proportion of rejected open condition recommendations involving IPP prisoners, 1 April 2024-31 March 2025

Number and proportion of rejected open condition recommendations involving life prisoners, 1 April 2024-31 March 2025

Table 2:

1. These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Data has been provided for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 to align with the publication of the Parole Board’s data on recommendations for open conditions.

Public protection remains the priority and prisoners will only be approved for a move to open conditions if it is assessed that it is safe to do so.