The Parole Board welcomes the findings from
the Review of the Parole
Board rules and Reconsideration Mechanism, which were
announced today by the Secretary of State for Justice.
Caroline Corby, Chair of the Parole Board said:
“The outcome of the recent consultation and rules review
builds on the work already undertaken to improve
transparency and efficiency of the parole system.
“I am particularly pleased to see that the new
reconsideration mechanism proposed is workable and will be
properly resourced. We will be working with the Ministry of
Justice to create and deliver a service that is
transparent, timely and straight forward for victims and
prisoners to use on the rare occasion that cases need to be
looked at again.
“We are always striving to improve how we work and the
upcoming Tailored Review provides us an opportunity to
evaluate the way we are currently set up, ensuring that we
have the most fair and independent parole system possible.”
On background:
What is the reconsideration mechanism?
The reconsideration mechanism will allow any party to the
hearing to be able to ask for a case to be reconsidered if
they believe a parole decision was unlawful, for example
if:
- Proper procedures weren’t followed;
- The law has been wrongly applied;
- Important information wasn’t available to the panel at
the time;
- The decision was unreasonable giving the information
available to the Parole Board
A victim or a member of the public can ask the Secretary of
State to make an application on their behalf, if they
believe the decision was unlawful, but it is up to the
Secretary of State to refer cases to the Parole Board
The reconsideration mechanism only applies to indeterminate
and Extended Sentences.
Judicial Review is still available, but the aim is to
provide a quick and free service to allow for problems to
be resolved without the need to go to Court.
This mechanism isn’t available yet, but more information
will be provided in due course.
For more information - please go to the MOJ
website.
What is the Tailored Review?
-
This is an opportunity for the Ministry of Justice to
look at whether the Parole Board should continue to sit
as an non-departmental public body.
-
It is a Cabinet Office requirement to review public
bodies during each Parliament. The Parole Board was
last reviewed in 2014/15 and would need to be reviewed
again before the end of 2019/20.
-
It will be looking to bolster the ‘court-like’ status
of the Parole Board.
-
It will consider internal and external accountability,
including governance arrangements.
-
The Parole Board will be publishing its response to the
review in due course.
For more information, please see the MOJ
announcement on GOV.UK.
