The Parole Board. Working with others to protect the public.
About the Parole Board
There was a 12% increase in the number of three member oral hearings from 1,495 in 2006/07 to 1,676 in 2007/08. This was almost entirely due to the rise in the number of IPP cases considered by the Board. The overall number of oral hearings held, including single member panels, remained similar to last year at 2,531. Deferrals, after a peak of 27% in 2006/07, were back down below 2005/06 levels at 16.5%. Hidden within these figures are, however, two significant trends.
The first is the change brought about by the full introduction of ICM for oral hearings which is covered separately below. The second is the steady continuing increase in the number of IPP sentenced offenders dealt with by the Board.
The problems posed by IPPs were highlighted in last years Annual Report and the additional strains on the system of properly risk assessing offenders with relatively short tariffs culminated in January with the decision in the Court of Appeal in the case of Walker and James. This decision is highly significant and puts substantial
pressure on the Secretary of State to make significant changes to the IPP system to facilitate such prisoners being in a position to be considered for release at tariff expiry by ensuring they have access to timely risk interventions.
Legislative changes have taken place in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 to remove the imposition of very short minimum term IPPs, but it remains to be seen whether these will go far enough to make a real difference in stemming the rapid increase in
Indeterminate Sentence prisoners. If the numbers of IPP sentences show no reduction then some experts have suggested that, given no other changes to the system, the number of oral hearings could rise by a further 400% over the next six years.
With the Brooke judgment entailing greater independence for the Board and the increasingly court-like nature of its hearings there are further implications for both resources and process. The Board will need to ensure that a verbatim record of its proceedings is taken and so moves have been set in place to achieve this.
The greater numbers of cases and their greater complexity has also led us to improve our systems for case and document handling. An increasing proportion of our paper files will be converted to digital files and our IT case management system, including such things as port-tracking software, is being redesigned to ensure greater efficiency.
The Secretary of State recalled 11,756 Determinate Sentence prisoners in 2007/08 for breaching the conditions of their licence, compared with 11,265 on 2006/07. All of these cases were referred to the Board by the SofS to decide if recall was justified and whether release was appropriate. In many cases the Board recommended a further review. Taking into account the initial recalls and subsequent further reviews, the Board considered 19,060 referrals.
In the early part of the year such huge increases put great strains on the existing processes and systems and meant that the percentage of cases considered within six days was only 7% in April and 29% in May. Subsequently we reorganised both the resources of the team and the systems and these improvements proved highly effective in ensuring that, for the rest of the year, despite still further increases in numbers that decisions were reached within six days in virtually 100% of cases.
Intensive Case Management of oral hearings started life at a think tank in September 2006, at which a group of key stakeholders discussed the current process and how it could be improved. This multi-stakeholder approach ensured that the project was developed taking into account all perspectives and that the outcomes would benefit all parties involved in the oral hearings process.
From this shared vision a detailed project plan was developed, and major road testing took place in 2007. This involved a number of changes both in practical process terms as well as a major shift in mindset. This was a particular challenge towards the end of
2007 when the transition from the existing system into the new ICM process was effected.
The development, road testing and implementation of ICM could not have been undertaken without the co-operation and support of all the parties involved in oral hearings and ICM is an excellent example of what can be achieved by collegiate working.
In 2007/08 1,066 dossiers were assessed under ICM and early indications show that ICM is:
ICM will become the most significant operational driving force for oral hearings in 2008. Although ICM is firmly embedded there are still a number of issues to resolve and the Board will continue to develop and improve ICM.
Grenadier House, 99-105 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 2DX
Telephone 0845 251 2220