I am very grateful to the hon. Lady for raising this important and tragic case. She has written to me about it, and I hope that she has had the content of my letter back. I know that the service has already apologised to her constituent, and I apologise on its behalf, for not contacting her before the referral to open conditions. The victim liaison officer has made the offender manager aware of conditions that should be imposed on any release on temporary licence and so those will be taken into account should there be any ROTL granted. I am happy to continue to discuss this case with the hon. Lady at any opportune moment.

Access to open prison conditions is not a right, and there is no automatic progression. It is based on a detailed risk assessment. To be considered for open conditions, an individual must generally have served two to three years and have that time left to serve to the earliest release. In addition, a thorough risk assessment must be completed, considering the likelihood of the individual absconding and the risks to the public, as well as whether they are overall suited to the open estate.

In producing an assessment of the likelihood that a prisoner will reoffend and of the harm which would result from any reoffending, offender managers in HM Prison and Probation Service will use approved and accredited assessment tools, notably the Offender Assessment System (OASys).

When assessing a prisoner’s risk of harm and risk of reoffending, offender managers have regard to the prisoner’s static and dynamic risk factors. A static risk factor is usually a feature of the prisoner’s past – such as his/her previous offending, the nature of his/her upbringing or how well s/he did at school. A dynamic risk factor may vary or be susceptible to change – such as alcohol abuse, drug taking or negative peer pressure. In order to assess a prisoner as low risk of harm and low risk of reoffending, offender managers would need to be satisfied that, based on the available evidence, the risk indicators do not point to medium or high risk. When assessing a prisoner’s suitability for open conditions, offender managers need also be satisfied that the prisoner presents a low risk of abscondment.

In the case of determinate sentence prisoners, the Prison Governor takes the decision as to whether to transfer a prisoner to open conditions, having regard to a comprehensive assessment of current risk, including the risk of abscond or other breach of the trust afforded by open conditions

In the case of indeterminate sentence offenders, other than where a prisoner has made demonstrably exceptional progress, the decision for a move to open conditions is taken by officials on behalf of the Secretary of State, following advice from the Parole Board. The Secretary of State does have discretion to reject a recommendation from the Parole Board, but because the Board undertakes a full and thorough risk assessment, the policy since 2008 has been to accept the Board’s recommendation other than in exceptional circumstances.

Consequently, officials will accept a Parole Board recommendation, except where the recommendation goes against the recommendations of the report writers without explaining why, or is based on inaccurate information. Officials will also reject a recommendation if they consider that the Secretary of State does not have a wholly persuasive case for transferring the prisoner to open conditions at the current time.

The decision as to whether to transfer a prisoner to open conditions is a categorisation one for the Secretary of State, taken by officials under approved delegated authority on his behalf. Access to open prison conditions is not a right or an automatic progression but is based on a detailed assessment of risk.

In the case of indeterminate sentence prisoners, the decision to approve a prisoner for transfer to open conditions is generally taken in response to a recommendation from the independent Parole Board. Before making such a recommendation, the Parole Board will undertake a full and thorough risk assessment. As part of the risk assessment, the Parole Board will consider a number of detailed reports prepared by qualified probation and prison staff, who will in their reports in turn take account of any other agencies involved in the case under the statutory Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements.

As there is such a comprehensive assessment of the prisoner’s risk, officials will accept a recommendation from the Parole Board, except where the recommendation goes against the recommendations of the report writers without explaining why or is based on inaccurate information. A recommendation may also be rejected if the Secretary of State considers that there is not a wholly persuasive case for transferring the prisoner to open conditions at the current time.

In the case of determinate sentenced prisoners, only those prisoners who are assessed as low risk and are within three years of their earliest date of release may generally be considered for open conditions. Prisoners are assessed at the appropriate time by the prison in which they are located.

Victims who have elected to receive the Probation Victim Contact Scheme are entitled to be told when a prisoner is being considered for open conditions and the outcome.

This ensures that, once a prisoner is in an open prison, victims may make requests about licence conditions if the offender is considered for release on temporary licence.