Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners who were given an indeterminate sentence for public protection (a) applied for and (b) were refused Category D prison status in each of the last five years.

An indeterminate sentence prisoner (ISP) (that is, one serving either a life sentence or an indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPPs)) may be considered for transfer to open conditions as part of the prisoner’s parole review.

The decision whether to transfer an ISP to open conditions is taken by officials on behalf of, and under agreed delegated authority from, the Secretary of State. However, as a matter of policy, the Secretary of State usually invites the Parole Board to consider the prisoner’s suitability for such a transfer to and to advise him accordingly. Officials will either accept or reject any recommendation made by the Parole Board, in accordance with agreed policy.

ISPs may also apply to progress to open conditions without a positive recommendation from the Parole Board being sought, where they can show exceptional progress in reducing their risk. Each application is determined by officials on its merits, again under agreed delegated authority.

We hold centrally data on the number of ISPs whose cases were referred to the Parole Board to consider suitability for transfer or were considered for transfer to open conditions without a positive recommendation from the Parole Board. We also hold data on the number of cases considered suitable for transfer. However, we do not hold data on the number of ISPs who were considered by the Parole Board and were not considered suitable for transfer to open conditions.

In order to provide this information we would need to undertake a manual trawl of ISP cases and such an exercise would incur disproportionate cost.