§ Mr. MaclennanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department by what means his Department ensures that offenders on parole in the care of the probation service, who are required to attend a forensic consultant psychiatrist as a condition of their parole, actually do so.
§ Mr. MacleanThe responsibility for ensuring that offenders on parole comply with their licence conditions rests with local probation services. The Home Office has recently reminded all probation services of the importance of giving prompt effect to licence conditions.
Her Majesty's inspectorate of probation keeps the performance of all services under review.
§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he proposes to provide disclosure of parole dossiers and reasons for parole decisions to those prisoners who were sentenced before the early release provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 1992 came into force on 1 October 1992.
§ Mr. HowardI propose to provide openness in the parole process to those prisoners sentenced before 1 October 1992 who have a parole eligibility date—PED—or its anniversay, of 1 October 1994 and beyond. Under the openness arrangements the parole timetable takes about 26 weeks from start to finish; prisoners should receive their parole dossiers about four months before their PED, be 17W interviewed about their parole case by a parole board member about three months before PED, and receive reasons for the parole decision about three weeks before PED. On this timetable, the review process will begin in early April for those prisoners who become parole eligible from 1 October.
I shall continue to take decisions on the release on parole licence of such prisoners, after taking into account the recommendations of the parole board.