§ Mrs. Anne CampbellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if a risk assessment is carried out on all prisoners prior to their transfer to open prisons in respect of their contact with the local residential population. [17922]
§ Miss WiddecombeResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from A. J. Butler to Mrs. Anne Campbell, dated 4 March 1996:
The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director general from the office, to reply to your recent Question about risk assessment on all prisoners prior to their transfer to open prisons in respect of their contact with the local residential population.
The arrangements for temporary release on licence, including the criteria for eligibility and risk assessment, are set out in Instruction to Governors 36/1995 copies of which are available in the Library.
Life sentence prisoners must be recommended by the Parole Board and approved by Ministers before they are allocated to open prisons. A full risk assessment is undertaken before life sentence prisoners are approved for release on temporary licence from open prisons into the community.
Prisoners serving determinate sentences who are eligible for release on temporary licence must also satisfy a mandatory risk assessment.