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<p>Where 10 years have elapsed since the Parole Board first directed the release of
an offender serving a sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP), the Secretary
of State must by law refer that offender to the Parole Board, in order for the Board
to determine whether to terminate the offender’s IPP licence. The minimum 10-year
period is not paused or reset if an offender is recalled to prison or serves a subsequent
sentence for further offences. Where the Board does not terminate the licence, the
Secretary of State must by law re-refer the offender every 12 months. This ensures
that every eligible offender is considered by the Parole Board annually and will enable
the IPP licence, and the IPP sentence as a whole, to be brought to a definitive end
for more offenders.</p><p>On 16 October 2023, the Lord Chancellor announced he would
be looking at options to curtail the licence period to restore greater proportionality
to IPP sentences in line with recommendation 8 of the report by the Justice Select
Committee’ (JSC) report, published on 28 September 2022.</p><p>These changes are being
taken forward in the Victims and Prisoners Bill.</p><p>The new measure will:</p><ol><li>Reduce
the qualifying period which triggers the duty of the Secretary of State to refer an
IPP licence to the Parole Board for termination from ten years to three years;</li><li>Include
a clear statutory presumption that the IPP licence will be terminated by the Parole
Board at the end of the three-year qualifying period;</li><li>Introduce a provision
that will automatically terminate the IPP licence two years after the three-year qualifying
period, in cases where the Parole Board has not terminated the licence; and</li><li>Introduce
a power to amend the qualifying period by Statutory Instrument.</li></ol><p> </p><p>The
Lord Chancellor was persuaded by the Committee’s recommendation to reduce the qualifying
licence period from 10 years to 5 years and is going further: reducing the period
to 3 years. These amendments will restore greater proportionality to IPP sentences
and provide a clear pathway to a definitive end to the licence and, therefore, the
sentence.</p><p>In addition to these changes, the actions this Government are taking
are working; the number of prisoners serving the IPP sentence who have never been
released now stands at 1,269 as of September 2023, down from more than 6000 in 2012.</p><p>Table
1: Shows the number of offenders serving an IPP sentence under pre- and post-release
supervision who are eligible to be considered for termination of their licence, at
end of period, December 2020 to June 2023, England and Wales.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Period</p></td><td><p>Eligible</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021
Q1</p></td><td><p>187</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021 Q2</p></td><td><p>237</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021
Q3</p></td><td><p>299</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021 Q4</p></td><td><p>391</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022
Q1</p></td><td><p>477</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022 Q2</p></td><td><p>571</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022
Q3</p></td><td><p>662</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022 Q4</p></td><td><p>769</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2023
Q1</p></td><td><p>842</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2023 Q2</p></td><td><p>945</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Please
Note:</p><p>(1) This table includes IPP offenders who have been returned to custody
following a recall.</p><p>(2) The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative
IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible
errors with data entry and processing.</p><p>Table 2: Shows the number of cases referred
to the Parole Board</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Period</p></td><td><p>Referrals</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021
Q1</p></td><td><p>2</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021 Q2</p></td><td><p>8</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021
Q3</p></td><td><p>3</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021 Q4</p></td><td><p>9</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022
Q1</p></td><td><p>46</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022 Q2</p></td><td><p>42</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022
Q3</p></td><td><p>72</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022 Q4</p></td><td><p>69</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2023
Q1</p></td><td><p>83</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2023 Q2</p></td><td><p>147</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Please
Note:</p><p>(1) Figures could contain cases where the offender became eligible for
licence termination in previous quarter.</p><p>(2) Figures from Table 1 are snapshot
figures and are not comparable to figures in Table 2</p><p> </p><p>Table 3: Shows
the outcomes of licence termination applications in each quarter since 2021.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Outcome
Period</p></td><td><p>Terminated</p></td><td><p>Suspended/ Varied</p></td><td><p>Refused</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021
Q1</p></td><td><p>1</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>1</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021
Q2</p></td><td><p>3</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021
Q3</p></td><td><p>3</p></td><td><p>1</p></td><td><p>2</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021
Q4</p></td><td><p>4</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>2</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022
Q1</p></td><td><p>21</p></td><td><p>5</p></td><td><p>10</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022
Q2</p></td><td><p>25</p></td><td><p>7</p></td><td><p>12</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022
Q3</p></td><td><p>22</p></td><td><p>8</p></td><td><p>18</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022
Q4</p></td><td><p>28</p></td><td><p>6</p></td><td><p>46</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2023
Q1</p></td><td><p>25</p></td><td><p>6</p></td><td><p>23</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2023
Q2</p></td><td><p>38</p></td><td><p>14</p></td><td><p>72</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Table
4: Shows the number of people serving an IPP sentence that were transferred from prison
to a secure hospital, and held in a secure hospital, in each year, since 2009</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Number
of transfers in the year</p></td><td><p>Population in Secure Hospital at end of year</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2009</p></td><td><p>54</p></td><td><p>472</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010</p></td><td><p>107</p></td><td><p>467</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011</p></td><td><p>100</p></td><td><p>438</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012</p></td><td><p>86</p></td><td><p>380</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013</p></td><td><p>90</p></td><td><p>326</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014</p></td><td><p>88</p></td><td><p>264</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015</p></td><td><p>72</p></td><td><p>274</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016</p></td><td><p>66</p></td><td><p>274</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017</p></td><td><p>59</p></td><td><p>278</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018</p></td><td><p>65</p></td><td><p>282</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2019</p></td><td><p>59</p></td><td><p>276</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020</p></td><td><p>55</p></td><td><p>275</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021</p></td><td><p>39</p></td><td><p>287</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022</p></td><td><p>44</p></td><td><p>262</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Please
Note:</p><p>(1) We do not hold figures prior to 2009 as the data entry system which
holds these data was implemented in 2009 and data prior to this period are not of
sufficient quality to allow for the breakdown requested.</p><p>(2) The number of transfers
is not the same as number of offenders transferred as there could be more than one
transfer associated with an offender in a year.</p><p>(3) These figures have been
drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system,
are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. Consequently, care
should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations
are taken into account when those data are used.</p><p>The information requested for
HL236 and HL237 could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The information for
HL238 is not held centrally.</p>
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