Parole

(asked on 27th February 2023) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of processing times for the determination of applications requesting public parole hearings.


Answered by
Damian Hinds Portrait
Damian Hinds
Minister of State (Education)
This question was answered on 6th March 2023

The Parole Board (Amendment) Rules 2022 Statutory Instrument contains the provisions that enable public parole hearings. Specifically, the rules provide that hearings must be held in private unless it is in the interests of justice that they be held in public. Applications can be made by anyone no later than 12 weeks before a hearing and the decision whether to grant an application rests with the Chair of the Parole Board.

I cannot confirm the exact number of applications for public parole hearings because applications are submitted directly to the Parole Board. The department is only made aware of an application when the Parole Board asks for the Secretary of State’s representations in his role as a party to the parole process. The representations enable the Secretary of State to provide his views on the prospect of a public hearing, including the views of any victims.

As the decision on whether to hold a public hearing properly sits with the Chair of the Board, the department has not produced any guidelines on the determination of applications, nor have we prescribed any timescales in which decisions should be made. The Parole Board has published extensive guidance on its approach to public hearings on its website: Applying for a Parole review to be public - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

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