5 September 2024
Today the Justice Secretary announced the plan to implement the changes in the Victim and Prisoners Act 2024 affecting people serving Indeterminate Sentences of imprisonment and detention for Public Protection (IPPs and DPPs).
You can read the full statement here:
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-09-05/hcws72
All the changes in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 affecting people on IPP and DPP sentences will commence on 1 November 2024 except the reduction in the qualifying period for referral to the Parole Board, which will commence on 1 February 2025.
Most of the statement is self-explanatory. But some of it is not, so I have done my best, at speed, to try and clarify what it means in practice for people serving IPPs and DPPs.
The straight-forward changes that will take place from 1 November 2024 are:
- A change to the test the Parole Board applies when it considers current termination reviews that will mean strong justification on public protection grounds would be needed not to terminate the licence;
- The new power of executive release, meaning that people in IPP and DPP sentences who have been recalled can be also released administratively by the Secretary of State, instead of just by the Parole Board as now; and
- A requirement for the Secretary of State to lay an annual report before Parliament about the steps taken to progress those serving IPP sentences towards a safe release.
The changes to the licence termination process that come into force on 1 November 2024 are that licences will end for anyone entitled to automatic termination due to the passage of time since first released followed by a period of time with the licence continuously in force. In the statement, this is described as follows:
“From 1 November 2024, the qualifying period will be two years for DPP offenders and three years for IPP offenders for the purpose of the automatic licence termination but will remain ten years for other purposes.”
In practice, this means that anyone serving a DPP sentence (as they were convicted as a child) who was first released over two years ago and has spent at least a further continuous period of two years with the licence continuously in force as of 1 November 2024, will find their licence will be terminated automatically.
After 1 November 2024, once a person serving a DPP sentence who has accrued four years since their first release, and has spent the last two years with the licence continuously in force, their licence will expire automatically.
For people serving IPP sentences (convicted as an adult), then the two year continuous period with the licence in force starts once three years have passed since their first release.
The changes that begin on 1 November 2024 also provide that the Secretary of State can determine that for the purposes of the two-year automatic licence termination period, the prisoner’s licence is treated as having remained in force as if it had not been revoked, where it is in the interests of justice to do so. In simple terms, this means that it is open to the Secretary of State to decide a period of recall will not eat into the two year continuous period. If this power is not exercised, the two year period starts again from scratch once a person is re-released.
From February 2025, one off referrals to the Parole Board for a licence termination review will occur for people serving DPPs two years after first release and people serving IPPs three years after first release, if they have not had one already. At the moment, a referral to the Parole Board for a licence termination review will not take place until ten years have passed.
In short, the changes in November will require very little resources, whereas the changes in February will require additional work by probation and the Parole Board. Presumably the dates have been set with that in mind.