"I welcome today’s judgment and congratulate the victims
who brought this unprecedented legal action.
I want to take this opportunity reiterate my heartfelt
sympathy for all they, and the other victims, have
suffered as a result of Worboys’ hideous crimes.
I took expert legal advice from Leading Counsel on
whether I should bring a challenge. The bar for judicial
review is set high. I considered whether the decision was
legally rational – in other words, a decision which no
reasonable Parole Board could have made.
The advice I received was that such an argument was
highly unlikely to succeed. And, indeed, this argument
did not succeed.
However, the victims succeeded in a different argument.
They challenged that, while Ministry of Justice officials
opposed release, they should have done more to put
forward all the relevant material on other offending.
They also highlighted very significant failures on the
part of the Parole Board to make all the necessary
inquiries and so fully take into account wider evidence
about Worboys’ offending.
I also received advice on the failure of process argument
and was advised that this was not one that I as Secretary
of State would have been able to successfully advance.
The victims were better placed to make this argument and
this was the argument on which they have won their case.
Indeed, the judgment suggests that, had I brought a case,
the standing of the victims may have been compromised.
Given the very serious issues identified in this case, I
can announce today that I intend to conduct further work
to examine the Parole Board rules in their entirety.
As a result of the work that has been completed to date,
I have already decided to abolish Rule 25 and will do so
as soon as possible after the Easter recess. This will
enable us to provide for the Parole Board to make
available summaries of the decisions they make to
victims.
In addition, I will bring forward proposals for Parole
Board decisions to be challenged. I intend to consult on
the detail of these proposals by the end of April
alongside other proposals to improve the way that victims
are kept informed about the parole process.
I will make a statement to Parliament this afternoon and
set out our response to the judgment – and our next steps
- in more detail.
