The Parole Board. Working with others to protect the public.
About the Parole Board
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A Non Departmental Public Body (NDPB) is an independent public body which has a role in the process of national Government. It is not a government department or part of one. It operates at arm's length from Government. Appointments to the boards of these public bodies are known as public appointments.
The Parole Board's budget for 2007/08 was £7.6 million. The budget for 2008/09 has been increased to £8.36 million to meet the additional casework demands. The costs of the Board are largely driven by workload. Members' fees and travel and subsistence represent nearly 60% of the Board's budget and expenditure.
Full details of the Parole Board's accounts are included in the Parole Board's Annual Report and Accounts.
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.
The Parole Board aims to:
The Parole Board for England and Wales was established in 1968 under the Criminal Justice Act 1967. It became an independent Executive Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) on 1 July 1996 under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. The Parole Board's role is to make risk assessments about prisoners to decide who may safely be released into the community.
The Parole Board has responsibility for considering the following types of cases:
These include life sentence prisoners (mandatory life, discretionary life and automatic life sentence prisoners and Her Majestys Pleasure detainees) and prisoners given indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPP). The Parole Board also considers whether prisoners are safe to release into the community once they have completed their tariff (the minimum time they must spent in prison) and also whether the Secretary of State is justified in recalling them to prison for a breach of their life licence conditions (the rules which they must observe upon release) and whether they are safe to re-release following recall.
These include discretionary conditional release (DCR) prisoners serving more than 4 years whose offence was committed before 4 April 2005 and prisoners given extended sentences for public protection (EPP) for offences committed on or after 4 April 2005. The Parole Board considers whether these prisoners are safe to release into the community once they have completed the minimum time they must spend in prison. The Board also considers any determinate sentence prisoner referred by the Secretary of State following recall to prison for a breach of their parole licence conditions (the rules which they must observe upon release). The Board considers whether the recall was appropriate and whether the prisoner is safe to re-release into the community.
Grenadier House, 99-105 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 2DX
Telephone 0845 251 2220