The Justice Secretary blocked one in three IPP prisoners whom the Parole Board had recommended for open conditions, Government figures show.
From January to March 2025, the board recommended 34 Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) prisoners for open conditions. Shabana Mahmood, then Justice Secretary, overruled 11 of those recommendations. That is a rejection rate of 32 per cent.
Over the same period, the board recommended 78 life-sentenced prisoners for a move to open conditions. Ms Mahmood overruled 13 of them, a rejection rate of 17 per cent.
The figures are likely to worry campaigners. Most of the remaining IPP prisoners have spent many years in custody beyond the minimum ‘tariff’ their trial judge set.
Campaigners fear that some are being held back from progressing. In some cases, the cause may be poor behaviour linked to mental health conditions that developed in custody.
Justice Minister Baroness Levitt published the figures in the House of Lords. She said: “For many years the Secretary of State has asked the independent Parole Board for advice on whether a prisoner serving an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) or a life sentence is suitable for transfer to open conditions.”
She added: “Where the Parole Board recommends that a prisoner is so suitable, the Secretary of State is not bound to accept the recommendation, and it is the Secretary of State who is ultimately responsible for determining whether a life or IPP prisoner is safe to be managed in an open prison.”
Courts in England and Wales handed down IPP sentences between 2005 and 2012. They were for offences that were not serious enough to justify a life sentence, and had no fixed end date.
David Blunkett introduced the sentence when he was Labour home secretary. It was later scrapped, but the decision did not apply retrospectively to people already serving it.
