The Parole Board. Working with others to protect the public.
About the Parole Board
Chris was aged 40 and had served three years over a tariff of twelve years imposed for murder. The Board considered that his risk to life and limb remained too high either for release or for transfer to open conditions.
Read the full Case Study about Chris
Alan was aged 35 and was serving 10 years for supplying Class A drugs, committed when he was subject to a community sentence. Report writers said that his long sentence had been salutary and that he had learnt his lesson and were unanimous that his risk could be managed on licence for the remaining 8 months. The panel awarded parole.
Read the full Case study about Alan
The Parole Board holds two types of hearing:
These normally take place in prison. They will usually be chaired by a judge, but in some cases by a legally qualified or experienced Parole Board member. Where the circumstances of the case warrant it the panel will include a psychologist or psychiatrist. The third person will be an independent, probation or criminologist member.
In addition to the prisoner and the panel, others who may be present include the legal representative of the prisoner, together with a public protection advocate representing the Secretary of State and the victim, and witnesses such as the prisoners probation officer and prison psychologist. The victim might also be in attendance in order to present their victim personal statement.
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.
Parole Board members sit in panels of one, two or three to consider cases on the papers and each member contributes to them on an equal footing. Any type of member can sit on these panels.
The panel takes a considered decision on the basis of a dossier that contains reports from prison staff and the probation service as well as details of the prisoners' offending history. The dossier also contains a variety of formal risk assessments based on offending history, behaviour in prison, courses completed and psychological assessments. The dossier may also contain a victim impact statement or a victim personal statement.
Paper panels are used to consider the majority of cases where a determinate sentence prisoner is applying for parole and also for the initial hearing for all cases where a prisoner has been recalled to prison.
Grenadier House, 99-105 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 2DX
Telephone 0845 251 2220