The Parole Board. Working with others to protect the public.
News
20/07/2006
As part of his proposals for reform of the Criminal Justice System the Home Secretary, Dr John Reid, today announced two significant reforms of the way that the Parole Board works. This is the initial Parole Board response to these proposals.
The Home Secretary has proposed that all members of parole boards making decisions on a serious violent or sexual offender have direct or indirect experience of being a victim or can demonstrate a strong appreciation of victim issues.
Professor Sir Duncan Nichol, Chairman of the Parole Board, said:
"The work of the Board is not about punishment or retribution, or the rights of the prisoner, it is first and last about public safety. Our role is not to look to the past but rather to look to the future to prevent the possibility of there being future victims.
All members, regardless of their personal experience or background, are appointed, trained and appraised on the basis of their ability to objectively assess the offenders current and future risk of harm to the public and their risk of re-offending.
The Board has been working with victim groups for some time to strengthen our victim perspective and we believe the victim experience is already well represented by existing members. To bring some empirical testing of this view we recently carried out a survey of all of our 160 members to find out how many of them had either been a victim of crime themselves, were closely connected with someone who had been a victim or had first-hand experience of working with victims.
Almost half of our members responded to the survey, and of the 73 that did respond 99% were able to demonstrate that they did indeed have a strong victim perspective. 95% had been a direct victim of crime, 64% were closely connected with someone who had been a victim and 53% had worked in a victim support context.
Strikingly, their experiences were often of very serious offences indeed. 14% had been victims of rape or sexual assault, 20% had been victims of violent or gun crime and 14% had been victims of domestic violence or stalking. 9% of members were closely connected with someone who had been a victim of murder, manslaughter or attempted murder.
53% of members had worked directly with victims of crime in a victim support context, 26% as a representative of a victim supporting organisation, 21% as a psychologist or psychiatrist and 5% as a police officer.
Sir Duncan Nichol said:
"These results do not detract from the Home Secretary's proposals. In fact they support the argument that the victim perspective should and indeed does have a very real part to play. However, they do raise some serious questions about how much change is needed amongst existing Parole Board membership to bring about the victim perspective he is seeking.
We welcome the additional role of the Secretary of States presenting officer as a victim advocate to give us information relating to the victim, especially on issues relating to risk which will help us in our public protection role."
The Home Secretary has also proposed a change of the rules for parole decisions, so that any decision to release an offender into the community must be made unanimously. This reform would require primary legislation.
Sir Duncan Nichol said:
"The Board has itself previously given preliminary consideration to such a move and welcomes the opportunity to work closely with the Home Secretary to develop his proposals.
This proposal raises few concerns in terms of the panel process itself because the vast majority of decisions are now unanimous in any case. Members are not currently required to record whether a decision is unanimous or not, so precise figures are not available. However, the Hood and Shute research study carried out for the Home Office in 2000 (Home Office Research Paper 202/2000) showed that paper panels reached agreement in 80% of cases without any dissent or disagreement. The normal process of panel consideration leads to unanimous agreement after further discussion in the vast majority of cases."
Notes to Editors
The Parole Board is the independent body that protects the public by making risk assessments about prisoners to decide who may safely be released into the community and who must remain in or be returned to custody. The Parole Board was established under the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 1967 to advise the Home Secretary on the early release of prisoners. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 established the Board as an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body.
For further information please call Tim Morris, Head of Communications for the Parole Board, on 020-7217 0564 during office hours, or on 07725-927954 out of hours, look on the Parole Board website at www.paroleboard.gov.uk, or e-mail tim.morris5@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
ENDS
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