Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Victims and Prisoners Bill impact assessment which states the that the average annual cost of implementing the proposed reforms will be £32 million, and the total annual budget for the Parole Board being £23 million, whether this additional expense will (1) be met by new funding or (2) have to be found from existing budgets, and if so from where they plan to reallocate this money.

The published impact assessment outlines the cost and impact on prison places of these reforms. The £32 million refers to the average annual cost of the reforms over the next 10 years (excluding transition costs). The bulk of this cost (£28.7 million) is attributed to the additional prison places required – the actual increase in costs to the Parole Board is expected to average £0.7 million over the next 10 years. However, it is important to note that these figures are averages and will not be this high immediately as the number of additional prison places required will increase gradually until the reforms reach ‘’steady state’’, which is expected to be more than 10 years away. No further funding has been allocated in this spending review period; any further funding expenditure will be determined at future spending reviews.

The impact assessment can be accessed here: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/58-03/0286/VictimsandPrisonersBillParoleImpact_Assessment_March23.pdf.