Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, (a) in how many cases have parole board decisions been successfully challenged and (b) what the total financial cost was of paying compensation in those cases, in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.

Public protection is our top priority and it is absolutely right that parties are able to exercise their right to ask the Parole Board to reconsider a decision if there is evidence the process has been followed incorrectly or that the decision is irrational.

The Parole Board introduced its reconsideration mechanism in 2019 whereby the Secretary of State or the prisoner can apply for a parole decision to be looked at again by the Parole Board if they have reasons to show the decision is procedurally unfair, irrational or contained an error of law.

Since the commencement of the reconsideration mechanism, 153 cases have been challenged and received a new hearing for a panel to reconsider a prisoner’s application for parole out of 774 applications. The data requested on the number of reconsiderations that were successfully challenged and led to a different outcome is not available.

The financial cost data you have requested regarding compensation payments where prisoners have challenged a decision is not available in the format requested.