IPP licence termination member guidance
The Parole Board has issued guidance to members on the
termination of IPP licences for prisoners 10 years after their initial release.
Published 7 October 2020 From: Parole Board
Details
An offender sentenced to Imprisonment for Public Protection
(IPP) or Detention for Public Protection (DPP) has the right, under section 31A
of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 to apply for consideration to be given to
terminating their licence 10 years after their initial release, regardless of
whether they have subsequently been recalled and re-released.
It is only the Parole Board that can terminate an IPP or DPP
licence. Rule 31 of the Parole Board Rules 2019 deals explicitly with
termination of these licences.
Any applications for termination of an IPP or DPP licence
should be made by the offender themselves, either to the Parole Board
directly, or via their Community Offender Manager (COM).
Where an application is received by the Parole Board directly
from the offender the Parole Board will notify PPCS via a standard direction
and provide a copy of the application and the offender’s contact details. PPCS
will then notify the COM, who will prepare a report to add to the dossier of
information that the Parole Board will need in order to consider the
application.
When the Parole Board receives the dossier of information it
will carry out a risk assessment to establish if the licence can be terminated
or if it is still required to protect the public. The Parole Board can make one
of the following decisions:
(a) terminate the offender’s licence (b) amend the offender’s
licence (c) refuse the application
Once an IPP or DPP licence has been terminated, the offender
will not be subject to recall on that licence, and unlike the suspension of
supervision (which is a separate process), all of the licence conditions
related to that licence are terminated and may not be re-imposed.
If a request is refused a further application can be made
after 12 months.
Extract from Parole Board Duty Member Guidance-2020Termination
of IPP or DPP LicenceBackground5.7.1An offender sentenced to Imprisonment for
Public Protection (IPP) or Detention for Public Protection (DPP) has the right,
under section 31A of the Crime (Sentences) Act 19971to apply for consideration
to be given to terminating their IPP2licence 10 years after their initial
release, regardless of whether they have subsequently been recalled and
re-released. For the purposes of this guidance reference to the IPP sentence
will also include the DPP sentence.
5.7.2Any applications for termination of an IPP licence
should be made by the licensee themselves, either to the Parole Board directly
or via the National Probation Service (NPS)/PPCS. However, where an application
is received directly from the licensee to the Parole Board, the NPS will still
need to be notified, via PPCS, so that the correct information pack can be
prepared.
5.7.3It is only the Parole Board that can terminate an IPP
licence.
5.7.4Once an IPP licence has been terminated, the licensee
will not be subject to recall, and unlike the suspension of supervision, all of
the licence conditions are terminated and may not be re-imposed.
5.7.5Rule 31of the Parole Board Rules 2019 deals explicitly
with termination of licences:“Applications to terminate IPP licences.
31.—(1) Where an offender qualifies to make an application to
terminate their licence under section 31A of the 1997 Act, the offender may
make a direct applicationto the Parole Board or apply through the Secretary of
State.(2) Where an offender makes a direct application, the Board must serve
the application on the Secretary of State and the Secretary of State must serve
any reports or evidence as directed by the Parole Board.(3) Where an
application is made through the Secretary of State, the Secretary of State must
serve any reports or evidence at the same time as sending the application to
the Parole Board.(4) Where the Parole Board receives an application, either
from the offender directly or through the Secretary of State, a panel appointed
under rule 5(5) must consider the application in accordance with section 31A(4)
of the 1997 Act.
1Section 31A of the 1997 Act was inserted by the 2003 Act and
has been amended by section 117(10)(a) of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and
Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 c. 10, and paragraph 141 of Schedule 16 to the
Armed Forces Act 2006 c. 52.2IPP should be read to include DPP throughout this
guidance
(5) In considering the application under paragraphs (2) or
(3), the panel may—(a) make a decision on the papers, or(b) direct that the
application should be decided by a panel at a hearing.(6) Where a panel
considers the application on the papers or at a hearing, itmust decideto—(a)
terminate the offender’s licence;(b) amend the offender’s licence in accordance
with section 31(3) of the 1997Act, or(c) refuse the application.(7) Where a
decision is made by a panel under paragraph (6), the Parole Board must record
that decision in writing with reasons for that decision, and that record must
be provided to the offender and Secretary of State within 14 days of the
decision.
”PPCS and NPS role
5.7.6 Instructions on terminating licences are set out in PI
08/2015 –Managing Indeterminate Sentenced Offenders on Licence.
5.7.7 The NPS responsible officer is not required to make
applications on behalf of the licensee and so requests can be initiated by the
licensee as the starting point. However, responsible officers can, where they
feel it appropriate, make contact withthe licensee and suggest making an
application.
5.7.8 Alicensee does not require the support of the
responsible officer in order to make an application directly to the Parole
Board. However, the responsible officer is required to produce a report where
an application is made.
5.7.9 PPCS will make contact with the appointed responsible
officer and ensure all the necessary paperwork, as set out in the Parole Board
proforma (which has been agreed by HMPPS officials), is provided.
5.7.10 Once all the information has been collated a “Request
for Termination of IPP licence” form is completed and attached to the
information pack and sent to the Parole Board. A copy of this Termination
Report can be found at Annex
1.5.7.11 This form must be signed by theLine Manager of the
Responsible Officer and endorsed by an ACO or equivalent.
Managing cases: stage one –receiving the application
5.7.12 Upon receipt of an application directly from the
licensee, the Secretariat will prepare a proforma which confirms receiptand
requests PPCS to provide an information pack containing the following:
1.Notification of release
2.Last release decision
3.Release licence
4.Any post-release licence variation requests and outcomes
5.Licence cancellation application form
6.Reports from probation/police on up to date position
7.Previous parole dossier
5.7.13 Where the application has come via PPCS, the same
proforma is used but with a variation of wording, acknowledging receipt of the
information pack, which should contain allthe documents set out in the above
list.
5.7.14 The proforma will be submitted to the duty member who
will sign and date the form, after which the Secretariat will submit to PPCS. A
copy of the proforma can be found at Annex 2.
Managingcases: stage two –considering the application
5.7.15 Once the information pack has been received and
checked to ensure it contains all the required information, it will be
submitted to the duty member for consideration.
5.7.16 It is important to check if this is the first
application or if there have been previous requests that were refused. There
must be a minimum of 12 months between each application. If the request is
within 12 months of any previous request, the case should be referred back to
PPCS to investigate and advise.
5.7.17Things to consider:
•The scale of progress across the ten-year period including
work that has been carried out in the community to address the licensee’s risk
factors and to meet sentence planning objectives. The Termination Report should
summarise the key events during the licence period since initial release,
highlighting any areas of concern or progress
•Content of previous progress reports submitted to PPCS
•The licensee’s current circumstances in terms of the
stability of their lifestyle, current accommodation and history, current
employment and history, and current relationships and history
•Whether the licensee has been recalled at any time over the
ten-year period and if details of any recall are provided
•Whether applications to vary the licence conditions have
been made at any point since release, and if so, the conditions under which any
such variations were requested and granted (or refused)
•Whether the licensee is still under supervision, and when
was the last contact
•What is or has been the frequency and nature ofcontact and
how has this changed over the licence period
•If no longer under active supervision, when was it suspended
•Is there evidence that checks with other relevant agencies
listed in the Termination Report have been carried out? If the licensee has
come to
the attention of one or more of these agencies, their
application must still be referred to the Parole Board, but full details must
be provided
•What is current or last known risk of serious harmcategory?
All four categories of risk ofserious harm (public, children, known adult,
staff) should be considered and noted on the application if there is more than
one category relevant to the licensee’s risk
•What is the current or last known MAPPA level?
•Any bespoke licence conditions still inplace
•Any previous applications to terminate the licence (with
outcome)
•What is the recommendation of the responsible officer and is
there sufficient information to support their view?
5.7.18 If victims are signed up to the Victim Contact Scheme,
they have a right to be notified of the application and they are entitled to
submit a Victim Personal Statement(‘VPS’). The VPS should confine itself to the
impact that termination of the licence may have on the victim and not express a
view about the termination.
5.7.19 If the licence is terminated all licence conditions
will cease, including those relating to victims (non-contact and/or exclusion
zones).
Managing cases: stage three –the decision
5.7.20 The decision to be made is whether you are satisfied
that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that the
licence should remain in force; in which case the licence may be terminated.
5.7.21 The application will be dealt with as swiftly as
possible, providing all required information is submitted with the information
pack.
5.7.22 Once the decision has been made by the duty member, it
must be issued within 14 days, in line with timeframes for parole decisions.
5.7.23 In making a decision you have the following options,
as set out in the Rules:(a) make a decision on the papers, or(b) to direct that
the application should be decided by a panel at a hearing.
5.7.24 If you believe that an oral hearing is necessary to
properly consider the application, then directions will need to be issued on an
MCA Directions form. The Secretary of Stateshould be directed to secure a
suitable location for the oral hearing to take place.
5.7.25 If you have enough information in the papers, or after
an oral hearing, to make a decision you can:
(a) terminate the offender’s licence
(b) amend the offender’s licence
(c) refuse the application
Quarterly:
January to March 2020
Prison
population: 30 June 2020
Main Points
|
79,514
prisoners in England and Wales as at 30 June 2020 |
The total
prison population is 4% lower than the same point in the previous year,
driven by a fall of around 3,500 between March and June 2020 as a result of
COVID-19 disruption to courts. |
|
17,092
first receptions into prison between January and March 2020 |
The number of first receptions represents a fall of 3% compared to the same period in 2019. |
|
14,721
releases from sentences between January and March 2020 |
This is 5% lower than the same period in 2019. As the prison population shifts towards
those serving longer sentences, we would expect fewer releases in a given
period. |
|
50,044
adjudication outcomes between January and March 2020 |
This is a fall of 8% compared to the same period in 2019. Additional days were awarded as
punishment on 4,496 occasions – this is 17% lower than the same period in
2019. |
|
6,690
licence recalls between January and March 2020 |
This is an
8% increase on the same quarter in 2019, driven by increases in recalls from
determinate sentences of more than 12 months. |
|
241,350
offenders on probation at the end of March 2020 |
This
number has fallen by 5% compared to the number supervised as at 31 March
2019. |
This publication provides offender management annual
and quarterly statistics
for the latest date available and provides comparisons to the previous year.
The most recent weekly management information published by
HMPPS shows that the prison population has increased by around 100 (to 79,620)
in the period since the end of June 2020.
At this stage, it is difficult to determine what level the
prison population is likely to return to as courts return to business and
changes in the offence mix committed over this period are taken into account.”
The prison population stood at 79,514 on 30 June 2020.
The sentenced prison population stood at 67,352 (85% of the
prison population); the remand prison population stood at 11,388 (14%) and the
non-criminal prison population stood at 774 (1%).
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2020
suggests that the number of outstanding cases (“caseload”)
for both Magistrates Court and Crown Court have shown a substantial increase
since March 2020 – which has resulted in prisoners being held on remand for
longer.
Broadly speaking, the longer-term trend shows marked
decreases in prisoners serving short sentences of less than 4 years and
increases in prisoner numbers serving longer determinate sentences of 4 years
plus.
However, over the latest 12 month period there have been
decreases in the sentenced prisoner population across all sentence lengths
except for the very longest sentences (a 1% annual increase in the sentenced
population serving determinate sentences of ‘14 years or more’, and an 8%
increase in those serving ‘Extended Determinate Sentences (EDSs)’).
Extended Determinate Sentences (EDS)
EDSs were made available for courts to impose from 13 April 2015.
On 30 June 2020, 5,815 prisoners were serving such sentences; an 8% increase
compared to the same time last year.
Indeterminate sentences
As at 30 June 2020, there were 8,954 (8,618 male; 336 female)
indeterminate sentenced prisoners (those serving Imprisonment for Public Protection
(IPP) sentences and life sentences) in the prison population. This represents
an annual decrease of 4%.
There were 1,969 IPP prisoners as at 30 June 2020 which
represents a decrease of 15% in the last 12 months. This figure has decreased
since the June 2012 peak of 6,080, however the number of IPP prisoners who have
been recalled to custody continues to increase; in the past year the recalled
IPP population has grown by 22% (to 1,359).
The proportion of the IPP population who are post-tariff continues
to increase; 94% of IPP prisoners were post-tariff as of 30 June 2020 compared
to 92% at the same time the previous year.
The number of life sentenced prisoners (6,985) has decreased
by 1% compared to 30 June 2019. There were 63 whole-life prisoners at the end
of June 2020, with 3 additional life prisoners being treated in secure
hospitals.
Recall to custody
The prison population who have been recalled to custody
(9,226 prisoners) increased by 24% over the year leading up to 30 June 2020.
This can be attributed to the rise in the number of offenders serving longer
sentences, which are subsequently recalled shortly after.
Conversely there was a 9% increase in the number of recall
admissions (to 6,494) in the latest quarter (compared to the same period in
2019). Of these, the number of recall admissions from determinate sentences
increased by 8% and those from indeterminate sentences increased by 23%.
3. Releases
In the last quarter.
14,531 releases from determinate sentences and 190 from
indeterminate sentences.
Prison releases from custodial sentences
There were 5% fewer releases during the quarter ending March
2020 compared to the same quarter in 2019. There were large decreases in the
number of releases from short sentences (less than 4 years) but an increase
(3%) in releases from longer determinate sentences (4 years or more) compared
to the same quarter in 2019. This reflects the general trend in the prison
population away from short sentenced offenders, to those serving longer
determinate sentences.
There were 190 releases from indeterminate sentences (85 IPP,
105 Life) between January and March 2020, a 12% decrease from the same period
in 2019. The number of IPP and life releases fell by 10% and 13% respectively.
While the number of IPP releases tended to be around 130 and
above per quarter in previous years, the number of released IPP prisoners is
now declining, and is expected to continue in future quarters.
Releases on Temporary Licence (ROTL)
There were 98,938 incidences of ROTL during the quarter
ending March 2020, which is a 2% increase on the same quarter last year. 4,957
individuals were given at least one incidence of ROTL between January and March
2020 - an increase of 16% compared to the same quarter in 2019.
There were 204 recorded Temporary Release Failures (TRFs)
between January and March 2020. This is an increase of 18 compared with the
previous quarter and an increase of 46 compared with the same period the
previous year. TRFs as a proportion of temporary release incidences remain at a
low level, with approximately only 1 in every 485 incidences of temporary
release resulting in a failure between January and March 2020.
Prisoner transfers
There was a total of 20,898 recorded incidences of prisoner
transfer during the latest quarter (2% decrease from last year). The majority
of these (73%) were routine inter-prison transfers. 17,359 prisoners had at
least one incidence of a transfer in quarter ending December 2019.
There were 50,044 adjudication outcomes between January and March 2020.
This is a decrease of 8% on the same quarter in the previous
year. Additional days were awarded as punishment on 4,496 occasions in this
quarter.63%
5. Licence Recalls
The number of licence recalls between January and March 2020 was 6,690, of which 594 were recalls from Home Detention Curfew (HDC).
The total number of recalls increased by 8% compared to the
same quarter in 2019.
Offenders not returned to custody
The
total number of quarterly recalls has generally been increasing since
October-December 2016. Although the number of recalls increased by 8% from the
same quarter a year ago, it represents a decrease of 1% from the previous
quarter. There has been a marked increase in the number of quarterly recalls
since 2018, partly due to increased HDC recalls and recalls of offenders from
determinate sentences of 12 months or more.
The number of quarterly recalls
of offenders released from a sentence of under 12 months has been relatively
stable in recent years, averaging about 2,257 each quarter since January-March
2018.
After a fall in the number of
offenders recalled from a sentence of over 12 months from early 2016 to
mid-2017, the number of these recalls (including recalls of those with
indeterminate sentences) has continued to trend upwards. Between January and
March 2020, there were 4,374 offenders recalled from a sentence over 12 months,
an increase of 10% in comparison to the same quarter in the previous year.
There usually is more than one
reason for recalling an offender on licence. In recent quarters, about 4 in 10
recalls involved the offender recalled for facing further charges.
Non-compliance was given as one of the reasons for recalling in about 7 out of
10 recalls in January-March 2020, consistent with recent quarters.
Between January and March 2020,
89 IPP prisoners and 46 prisoners serving a life sentence were re-released,
having previously been returned to custody for a breach of licence conditions.
Offenders not returned to custody
Of all
those released on licence and recalled to custody due to breaching the
conditions of their licence between April 1999 and March 2020, there were 1,935
who had not been returned to custody by the end of June 2020.
A further 17 offenders had not
been returned to custody as of June 2020 after recall between 1984 and April
1999, meaning the total number of offenders not returned to custody at the end
of June 2020 was 1,952. These figures include some offenders believed to be
dead or living abroad but who have not been confirmed as dead or deported.
Of the 1,952 not returned to
custody by 30 June 2020, 327 had originally been serving a prison sentence for
violence against the person offences and a further 59 for sexual offences.
As at 31 March 2020, there were
241,350 offenders supervised by the Probation Service (Figure 2), representing
a 5% decrease compared to the 31 March 2019. Over the same period, court order
caseload decreased by 9% from 111,667 to 101,300, with the number of offenders
on a community order (CO) decreasing by 10% and those on a suspended sentence
order (SSO) with requirements decreasing by 8%. The total caseload of offenders
supervised before or after release from prison at the end of March 2020 was
144,614, representing a decrease of 3% since the end of March 2019.
Figure 2: Number of offenders under Probation Service supervision, 31 March 2010 to 2020 (source for 2018 to 2020: Table 4.6; source for years prior to 2018: Table 4.7)
As at 31 March 2020, there were 241,350 offenders
supervised by the Probation Service (Figure 2), representing a 5% decrease
compared to the 31 March 2019. Over the same period, court order caseload
decreased by 9% from 111,667 to 101,300, with the number of offenders on a
community order (CO) decreasing by 10% and those on a suspended sentence order
(SSO) with requirements decreasing by 8%. The total caseload of offenders
supervised before or after release from prison at the end of March 2020 was
144,614, representing a decrease of 3% since the end of March 2019.
There needs to be a Review of Self-inflicted Deaths of IPP prisoners in Prison reflect the the real issues.
Outdated review 2016 below.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/747470/review-of-deaths-in-custody-2016.pdf
Coronavirus recovery in prisons and probation
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/coronavirus-recovery-in-prisons-and-probation
No comments:
Post a Comment
comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.