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Prisons and Probation: Standards

Original answer

The IPP Action Plan is regularly reviewed to ensure that it is responsive to the needs of those serving IPP sentences, whether in prison or in the community. A large number of IPP prisoners have been released each year since the IPP Action Plan was first introduced in 2016, and the Plan will be refreshed, reviewed and republished after careful consideration of the forthcoming Justice Select Committee’s Report and recommendations.

The Public Protection Casework Section in HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) HQ has implemented active case management, which is directed towards ensuring that probation and prison staff comply with directions from Parole Board Panels in a timely fashion.

Best practice ideals, based on an initiative that started in prisons in the East of England Region, were developed and rolled out for use in a number of prisons prior to the pandemic. The roll out was then unavoidably disrupted by the exceptional delivery models which had to be implemented on the grounds of public health. Progress of the best practice ideals will be reviewed as part of the wider action plan following consideration of the Justice Select Committee’s report and recommendations.

Offenders subject to IPP sentences are eligible for electronic monitoring following release on licence, where considered necessary and proportionate by the Parole Board. The additional investment of £183m in the expansion of electronic monitoring will also increase the availability of electronic monitoring for IPP offenders. Those whose risk is linked to alcohol are eligible for alcohol monitoring on licence, which was introduced in Wales in November and will be rolled out to England this summer. IPP releases will also be eligible for a project targeting high-risk domestic abuse perpetrators, where they will have their whereabouts monitored using GPS tags to protect victims, and potential future victims, from further trauma. The project will begin in 2023 and we expect to tag around 3,500 offenders.

HM Prison and Probation Service has developed a dataset and data dashboard, which is shared on a quarterly basis with Probation Regions and Prison Groups to support them in their efforts to monitor and manage their IPP populations, both in prisons and the community. The dashboard is still evolving and kept under review, as we identify new ways to capture additional key management information and present it in such a way as to be the most helpful to the operational line.

The following table shows the number of IPP progression panels that have taken place in each Probation region by year since June 2019*: During the COVID-19 pandemic, and in accordance with measures mandated in the interests of public health, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) implemented exceptional delivery models which inevitably had some impact on all operational work.

Probation Region	The number of IPP progression panels held by year
	01/06/2019 to 31/12/2019	2020	2021	01/01/2022 to 22/03/2022	Total
East Midlands Region	114	466	241	23	844
East of England	224	715	554	107	1,600
Greater Manchester	294	472	291	36	1,093
Kent Surrey Sussex Region	129	529	426	79	1,163
London	236	551	629	134	1,550
National Security Division	-	#	4	#	9
North East Region	117	423	196	33	769
North West Region	298	710	447	85	1,540
South Central	156	271	328	79	834
South West	111	469	197	137	914
Wales	174	197	150	16	537
West Midlands Region	304	868	522	126	1,820
Yorkshire and The Humber	170	635	422	72	1,299
Unknown Region	3	#	-	#	16
Total	2,330	6,322	4,407	929	13,988

*Caveats:

1. # - A value less than 3, or a value suppressed to prevent the disclosure of a value less than 3.

2. This data is from the Probation Case Management System, National Delius. While data accuracy has been assured as far as practical, as with any large administrative data source the likelihood of some errors cannot be eliminated.

3. Panels without a recorded outcome (from the point that an outcome was required to be recorded) were assumed to not have taken place.

4. Due to probation restructures in 2020 and 2021, a small number of panels could not be assigned to a region. These are recorded as 'Unknown Region'.

The answer was corrected by Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Conservative)

on Wednesday, 27 April 2022 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Corrected answer

The IPP Action Plan is regularly reviewed to ensure that it is responsive to the needs of those serving IPP sentences, whether in prison or in the community. A large number of IPP prisoners have been released each year since the IPP Action Plan was first introduced in 2016, and the Plan will be refreshed, reviewed and republished after careful consideration of the forthcoming Justice Select Committee’s Report and recommendations.

The Public Protection Casework Section in HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) HQ has implemented active case management, which is directed towards ensuring that probation and prison staff comply with directions from Parole Board Panels in a timely fashion.

Best practice ideals, based on an initiative that started in prisons in the East of England Region, were developed and rolled out for use in a number of prisons prior to the pandemic. The roll out was then unavoidably disrupted by the exceptional delivery models which had to be implemented on the grounds of public health. Progress of the best practice ideals will be reviewed as part of the wider action plan following consideration of the Justice Select Committee’s report and recommendations.

Offenders subject to IPP sentences are eligible for electronic monitoring following release on licence, where considered necessary and proportionate by the Parole Board. The additional investment of £183m in the expansion of electronic monitoring will also increase the availability of electronic monitoring for IPP offenders. Those whose risk is linked to alcohol are eligible for alcohol monitoring on licence, which was introduced in Wales in November and will be rolled out to England this summer. IPP releases will also be eligible for a project targeting high-risk domestic abuse perpetrators, where they will have their whereabouts monitored using GPS tags to protect victims, and potential future victims, from further trauma. The project will begin in 2023 and we expect to tag around 3,500 offenders.

HM Prison and Probation Service has developed a dataset and data dashboard, which is shared on a quarterly basis with Probation Regions and Prison Groups to support them in their efforts to monitor and manage their IPP populations, both in prisons and the community. The dashboard is still evolving and kept under review, as we identify new ways to capture additional key management information and present it in such a way as to be the most helpful to the operational line.

The following table shows the number of IPP progression panels (lifers and IPPs) that have taken place in each Probation region by year since June 2019*: During the COVID-19 pandemic, and in accordance with measures mandated in the interests of public health, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) implemented exceptional delivery models which inevitably had some impact on all operational work.

Probation Region	The number of IPP progression panels held by year (Lifers and IPPs)
	01/06/2019 to 31/12/2019	2020	2021	01/01/2022 to 22/03/2022	Total
East Midlands Region	114	466	241	23	844
East of England	224	715	554	107	1,600
Greater Manchester	294	472	291	36	1,093
Kent Surrey Sussex Region	129	529	426	79	1,163
London	236	551	629	134	1,550
National Security Division	-	# *	4	# *	9
North East Region	117	423	196	33	769
North West Region	298	710	447	85	1,540
South Central	156	271	328	79	834
South West	111	469	197	137	914
Wales	174	197	150	16	537
West Midlands Region	304	868	522	126	1,820
Yorkshire and The Humber	170	635	422	72	1,299
Unknown Region	3	# *	-	# *	16
Total	2,330	6,322	4,407	929	13,988

*CaveatsNotes:

1. # - A value less than 3, or a value suppressed to prevent the disclosure of a value less than 3.

2. This data is from the Probation Case Management System, National Delius. While data accuracy has been assured as far as practical, as with any large administrative data source the likelihood of some errors cannot be eliminated.

3. Panels without a recorded outcome (from the point that an outcome was required to be recorded) were assumed to not have taken place.

4. Due to probation restructures in 2020 and 2021, a small number of panels could not be assigned to a region. These are recorded as 'Unknown Region'.

1. Panels without a recorded outcome (from the point that an outcome was required to be recorded) were assumed to not have taken place.

2. Due to probation restructures in 2020 and 2021, a small number of panels could not be assigned to a region. These are recorded as 'Unknown Region'.

3. Disclosure control. An asterisk (*) has been used to suppress values of one or two. This is to prevent the disclosure of individual information. Further disclosure control may be completed where this alone is not sufficient.

4. Data sources and quality. The figures in these tables have been drawn from the Probation Case Management System, National Delius administrative, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL7121

Session

2021-22

Related items

Deposited Paper DEP2019-0946
Friday, 21 June 2019
Deposited papers
House of Commons

Grouped for answer

Yes

Subjects

Prisons Probation Standards

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk