- campaign to at least double Parole Board members with
policing experience
- panellists will bring first-hand experience of risk of
dangerous offenders
- new laws will mean former police officers must sit on ‘top
tier’ cases
A national recruitment campaign launched on Wednesday (15
February 2023) will see the number of Parole Board panellists
from policing backgrounds almost double, from 26 to 51.
Panellists are responsible for making finely balanced risk
assessments when deciding whether to release prisoners on life
and other indeterminate sentences once they’ve served their
minimum term.
Recruiting 25 more Parole Board panellists will double the number
who have first-hand policing experience of managing serious
offenders and the risk they pose – placing a greater focus on
public protection in parole hearings.
The government will also legislate to make sure parole reviews of
‘top-tier’ cases will involve members with policing backgrounds.
This category includes the most dangerous offenders convicted of
murder, rape, causing or allowing the death of a child and
terrorist offences.
Deputy Prime Minister, Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor,
, said:
The public want to know that parole decisions are being made by
those with good insight into offenders’ behaviour like police
officers and detectives.
Their first-hand experience and understanding of risk will give
parole boards an even greater focus on public protection and make
our streets safer.
Since the root and branch reforms of the parole
process were announced last year, the government has already
introduced a raft of changes to toughen up the parole system and
restore public confidence.
This includes tightening up the rules around open prison moves so
all indeterminate sentence offenders – those who have committed
the most serious crimes, including murder and rape – face much
stricter criteria to move from closed to open prison.
Further reforms, including a tougher release test for parole
prisoners and new powers for the Justice Secretary to block the
release of dangerous offenders, are also set to be introduced as
soon as parliamentary time allows.
New panellists are expected to be in place before the end of the
year and will at least double the proportion of Parole Board
members from policing backgrounds from 8% to 16%.
Currently, parole hearings are conducted by a panel of one to
three members who come from a variety of backgrounds, including
judges and psychiatrists. The panel considers a wide range of
evidence and hears from the professionals working with a
prisoner, such as probation officers or prison psychologists, and
listens to victims about the impact the crime had on their lives.
In order to direct release, the panel must be satisfied that it
is no longer necessary for an offender to be in prison in the
interest of public protection. In practice this means ensuring
that any risk presented by a prisoner can be safely managed in
the community.
