Annual Report and Accounts and Report Annual Annual Report and Accounts 2009/10 the Parole Board for England and Wales 2009/10 the Parole Board for England and Wales Board for England and the Parole Published by TSO (The Stationery Office) and available from: Online www.tsoshop.co.uk Mail, Telephone Fax & E-Mail TSO PO Box 29, Norwich, NR3 1GN Telephone orders/General enquiries: 0870 600 5522 Order through the Parliamentary Hotline Lo-Call: 0845 7 023474 Fax orders: 0870 600 5533 E-mail: [email protected] Textphone: 0870 240 3701 The Parliamentary Bookshop 12 Bridge Street, Parliament Square, London SW1A 2JX Telephone orders/ General enquiries: 020 7219 3890 Fax orders: 020 7219 3866 Email: [email protected] Internet: http://www.bookshop.parliament.uk TSO@Blackwell and other Accredited Agents Customers can also order publications from: TSO Ireland 16 Arthur Street, Belfast BT1 4GD Telephone orders/general enquiries: 028 9023 8451 Fax orders: 028 9023 5401 HC162 £19.75 Annual Report and Accounts the Parole Board for England and Wales 2009/10 Presented to Parliament in pursuance of paragraphs 10 and 11 of schedule 19 to the Criminal Justice Act 2003 Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 19 July 2010 HC162 London: The Stationery Office £19.75 © Parole Board (2010) The text of this document (this excludes, where present, the Royal Arms and all departmental and agency logos) may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium providing that it is reproduced accurately and not in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as Parole Board copyright and the document title specified. Where third party material has been identified, permission from the respective copyright holder must be sought. ISBN: 9780102968149 Printed in the UK by The Stationery Office Limited on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office ID P002377985 07/10 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fibre content minimum The Right Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP Justice Secretary Ministry of Justice 102 Petty France London, SW1H 9AJ 8 July 2010 Dear Justice Secretary I have pleasure in presenting to you the Parole Board’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2009/10. The report records the work carried out by the Board last year to achieve our aim of making risk assessments that are rigorous, fair and timely while protecting the public and contributing to the rehabilitation of prisoners. During the past year we have faced the challenge of a continuing rise in our oral hearings caseload along with a critical shortage of members, and in particular judicial members, to hear those cases. The coming year also promises to be a challenging one as we work to reduce the backlog of outstanding oral hearings cases and at the same time manage changes that may result from the public consultation by the Ministry of Justice on our future status. No matter where our future landing place lies, the Board will continue to focus on maintaining the highest standards of case management and decision making as part of our core mission of working with others to protect the public. I am pleased to say that the Board’s Accounts have once again received an unqualified certificate from the Comptroller and Auditor General. Yours sincerely The Rt Hon Sir David Latham Chairman Mission Statement The Parole Board is an independent body that works with its criminal justice partners to protect the public by risk assessing prisoners to decide whether they can be safely released into the community Parole Board for England and Wales Grenadier House 99-105 Horseferry Road London, SW1P 2DX Enquiries: 0845 251 2220 Fax: 0845 251 2221 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.paroleboard.gov.uk Annual Report and Accounts 2009/10 3 Contents About the Board 4 Chairman’s Foreword 8 Chief Executive’s Review of the Year 10 Key Statistics 12 Diary of the Year 2009/10 13 Public Accounts Committee 14 Future landing place 15 Casework 16 Quality and standards 17 Performance and development 18 Legal challenge 19 Public confidence 21 Performance 26 Statistics 31 Statement of Accounts 48 Membership of the Parole Board 84 Glossary 100 4 Annual Report and Accounts 2009/10 About the Parole Board What is the Parole Board? Indeterminate sentence The Parole Board is an independent body prisoners that works with its criminal justice partners These include life sentence prisoners to protect the public by risk assessing (mandatory life, discretionary life and prisoners to decide whether they can be automatic life sentence prisoners and safely released into the community. It is Her Majesty’s Pleasure detainees) and NDPB of the Ministry of Justice. prisoners given indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPP). The Parole What are the aims of the Board considers whether these prisoners Parole Board? are safe to release into the community The Parole Board aims to: once they have completed their tariff (the y Make risk assessments which are rigorous, minimum time they must spend in prison) fair and timely with the primary aim and also whether they are safe to re-release of protecting the public and which following recall for a breach of their licence contribute to the rehabilitation of conditions (the rules which they must prisoners where appropriate. observe upon release). y Demonstrate effective and accountable corporate governance by maintaining Determinate sentence strong internal control, setting clear prisoners objectives and managing corporate risk These include discretionary conditional and to deliver best value by optimum use release (DCR) prisoners serving more than of resources. 4 years whose offence was committed before y Promote the independence of and 4 April 2005 and prisoners given extended confidence in the work of the Board, while sentences for public protection (EPP) for effectively managing change. offences committed on or after 4 April 2005. The Parole Board considers whether What are the responsibilities these prisoners are safe to release into the of the Parole Board? community once they have completed the The Parole Board for England and Wales was minimum time they must spend in prison. established in 1967 under the Criminal Justice The Board also considers any determinate Act 1967. It became an independent Executive prisoner referred by the Secretary of State Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) on following recall to prison for a breach of 1 July 1996 under the Criminal Justice and their parole licence conditions (the rules Public Order Act 1994. The Parole Board’s role which they must observe upon release) is to make risk assessments about prisoners as to whether they are safe to re-release to decide who may safely be released into into the community. the community. The Parole Board has responsibility for considering the following types of cases: Annual Report and Accounts 2009/10 5 What types of hearing does Paper hearings the Parole Board hold? Parole Board members sit in panels of The Parole Board holds two types of hearing: one, two or three to consider cases on the papers and each member contributes Oral hearings to them on an equal footing. Any type of member can sit on these panels. These normally take place in prison. For life sentence prisoners they will usually The panel takes a considered decision on be chaired by a judge, but most IPP cases the basis of a dossier that contains reports will be chaired by an experienced Parole from prison staff and offender managers Board member. Where the circumstances as well as details of the prisoner’s offending of the case warrant it the panel will include a history. The dossier also contains a variety psychologist or psychiatrist. The third person of formal risk assessments based on offending will be an independent or probation member. history, behaviour in prison, courses completed and psychological assessments. The dossier In addition to the prisoner and the panel, may also contain a victim impact statement others who may be present include the legal or a victim personal statement. representative of the prisoner, together with a public protection advocate representing the Paper panels are used to consider the Secretary of State and the victim, and witnesses majority of cases where a determinate such as the prisoner’s offender manager and sentence prisoner is applying for parole prison psychologist. The victim might also be and also serve as the initial hearing for in attendance in order to present their victim all cases where a determinate prisoner personal statement. has been recalled to prison. Oral hearings are used to consider the majority of cases where an indeterminate sentence prisoner is applying for release and also for some cases, involving both determinate and indeterminate sentences, where a prisoner is making representations against a decision to recall them to prison. Oral hearings are also held before a single member in certain recall cases. The member will hold the hearing either at the prison or remotely using video-link. 6 Annual Report and Accounts 2009/10 Review of the Year Annual Report and Accounts 2009/10 7 8 Annual Report and Accounts 2009/10 Chairman’s Foreword Sir David Latham In my foreword to last year’s Annual Report I The second challenge will be to find matching highlighted two major challenges that faced us numbers of independent and particularly specialist as an organisation, lack of judicial resource that members to sit on panels along with the judges was contributing to our rising backlog of cases and raise the capacity of our staff to handle the and the uncertainty over our future status. I am additional workload. pleased to say that we have made very significant progress in each of these areas over the last 12 Future of the Parole Board months, but both remain unfinished business The public consultation over the future and further challenges undoubtedly lie ahead.