Parole Boards ‘must have’ members with police backgrounds says review

Policing experience particularly relevant in cases of murder, rape, child killings and terrorism

The Ministry of Justice is to launch a recruitment campaign to attract more Parole Board members with a policing background after a root and branch review of the system found that only 5 per cent of current members have experience of working in law enforcement.

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab described this as a “significant deficit” and added: “I believe it is wrong and that reforms will ensure that those who we charge with making finely balanced assessments of future risk have greater first hand operational experience of protecting the public from serious offenders.”

The law will be changed to add people with law enforcement experience as one of the types that the Parole Board must include among its members.

The government also intends to mandate the presence of a member with law enforcement experience on the panels that review cases of prisoners in the top-tier cohort of offenders which covers murder, rape, causing or allowing the death of a child, and terrorist offences.

It says the “unique” experience of police officers in dealing with offenders in the community will assist in risk assessment decisions of parole panels.

Currently panel members are public appointees from a variety of backgrounds and must include:

• a person who holds or has held judicial office;
• a registered medical practitioner who is a psychiatrist;
• a person appearing to the Secretary of State to have knowledge and experience of the supervision or after-care of discharged prisoners;
• and a person appearing to the Secretary of State to have made a study of the causes of delinquency or the treatment of offenders.’

It says law enforcement knowledge will bring “a different perspective” to release decisions on such offenders.

The review says that in order to attract more members with a policing background an outreach recruitment campaign will start later in 2022

A previous review identified that the fee structure for Parole Board appointees was failing to incentivise members to undertake the paper-based ‘Member Case Assessment’ (MCA) work or to chair oral hearings.“This risked undermining the quality and affecting timelines forthe increasing quantity of parole decisions that had to be made,” it added. 

In response, the Parole Board introduced a new fee structure on 1 April 2021. This increases the overall fees for MCA work, and reflects the greater time required to review determinate recall cases at MCA stage. In addition, it introduces a ‘decision-writing’ fee for panel Chairs to reflect the additional responsibilities associated with chairing an oral hearing.

Cabinet Office and the Parole Board have agreed provision for extending tenures for members, by exception, to a maximum of fifteen years (another recommendation of the Tailored Review).

The Review concludes that these changes should continue to drive positive improvements in terms of the Board’s ability to manage caseloads, ensure there are sufficient panel chairs to meet demand and progress cases as quickly and efficiently as possible