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Parole system criticised for failing to protect the public

05/03/2008

The way prison inmates are assessed for parole has been criticised by the National Audit Office (NAO).

In a report published today, the watchdog claimed the Parole Board was making decisions on releasing inmates without referencing important documents highlighting the likelihood of offenders committing further crimes.

The relevant documents arrived late in 97 of 276 indeterminate sentences cases studied.

As a result it was suggested that some prisoners who should not be granted bail had been, while some that should were being kept in jai

The report claimed that a 31 per cent increase in the Parole Board's workload between 2005 and 2007 had meant only a third of hearings in life sentence cases were on time, while two thirds of parole oral hearings for inmates sentenced to life had been deferred at least once.

Subsequent delays were leading to more inmates remaining in prison and led to increased pressure on a system already at capacity, the NAO report claimed.

The number of life prisoners being released as a result of decisions by the Parole Board was found to have dropped from 23 per cent in 2006/06 to 15 per cent in 2006/07 and from 50 per cent to 36 per cent in other inmates.

Christine Gen, chief executive of the Parole Board, said: "I accept that there is still more to do in terms of reducing delays within the system and we are working with our partner agencies to raise standards across the board.

"At the heart of our role is public safety and we retain our objective of making risk assessments which are rigorous, fair and timely, with the primary aim of protecting the public."

NAO chief Tim Burr was critical of the board's failure to have all the relevant information available when making parole decisions.

"If the Parole Board is to make decisions about the release of prisoners which are both fair and minimise the risk of harm to the public for the board to do its job properly, it must have access to complete information.

"Currently this is not always happening."

Chairman of the House of Commons public accounts committee and Conservative MP, Edward Leigh said that making the decisions without fully knowledge of the offenders was "putting the public at risk of harm".