§ Mr. Dewarasked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he will authorise the disclosure to prisoners in certain cases of the criteria on which their parole applications have been rejected.
§ Mr. RifkindI shall reply to the hon. Member as soon as possible.
§ Mr. Dewarasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps he is taking to reduce the waiting time for life sentence prisoners between the preparation of reports for parole reviews and the announcement of an official decision.
§ Mr. RifkindI am giving priority to measures to further reduce the backlog as quickly as possible. The staff dealing with life licence reviews has been strengthened and new procedures have been introduced in consultation with the Parole Board for Scotland.
§ Mr. Dewarasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many long-term prisoners in Scotland chose not to be considered for parole, though eligible, in each of the last 10 years.
§ Mr. RifkindPrisoners or young offenders serving sentences of more than 18 months are eligible for consideration for early release on parole licence. Figures for those who decide not to be considered for parole are given in the annual reports of the Parole Board for Scotland.
For the 10 year period between 1976 and 1985 the information is as follows:
Total Number of prisoners eligible for parole Number of Prisoners who chose not to be considered for parole 1976 788 110 1977 787 101 1978 807 99 1979 869 105 1980 837 108 1981 903 101 1982 772 94 1983 883 92 1984 819 100 1985 853 101
§ Mr. Dewarasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he intends to seek to reduce the qualifying period for parole for prisoners in Scotland from 12 months to six months; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. RifkindThis proposal was considered but rejected by my predecessor in his statement on the Government's policy on parole on 18 December 1984. The operation of the parole scheme in Scotland is kept under careful review. At this stage, however, I am not convinced that a change of this kind would be appropriate.
§ Mr. Dewarasked the Secretary of State for Scotland when he intends to publish revised guidelines for social workers on the compilation of parole reports.
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§ Mr. RifkindMy predecessor's statement on parole policy in December 1984 made it plain that existing procedures for initial review of parole cases by local review committees would continue. No change was made in the entitlement to parole review or the arrangements for compilation of parole reports for the purposes of review. The Parole Board for Scotland continues to see those cases which it would have seen before after favourable initial review and has the opportunity to bring to my attention any exceptional circumstances which, in their view, might set aside the presumption of my policy on parole in cases to which it applies.
No change in the form or substance of reports by prison social workers or by field social workers on home circumstances has been necessary.
§ Mr. Dewarasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he plans to introduce the practice of allowing certain local review committee recommendations for the release of prisoners to be carried out without reference to the Parole Board; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. RifkindI have no plans to do so at present, but I shall keep this suggestion in mind.
§ Mr. Dewarasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the number and percentage of long term prisoners in Scotland eligible for parole under the revised guidelines; how many have been referred to the Parole Board for Scotland for information only; and how many have been recommended for release.
§ Mr. RifkindAll prisoners serving more than 18 months are eligible for parole consideration. Details of the numbers of cases reviewed, considered by the Parole Board for Scotland and recommended for release are given in the annual reports of the Parole Board for Scotland.
The lastest available information, for 1985, is as follows:
Number Number of cases eligible for consideration 853 Number not wishing to be considered 101 Number referred to the Parole Board for Scotland 483 Number recommended by the Board for parole 226 A total of 63 cases were referred to the Parole Board for Scotland, for information, on the basis of my policy presumption against early release on licence for certain offenders serving sentences of over five years for crimes of violence or drug trafficking. The parole board requested formal referral of four of these cases, two on the current review and two at the next review. My predecessor agreed to both requests for referral on the current review and parole was granted, on the formal recommendation of the parole board, in both these cases.
In addition 50 other cases, in the same categories of sentence and offence were referred to the parole board on a formal basis permitting a period of parole of up to eight months on final review. Parole of periods between four months and eight months was granted in 34 of these cases on the formal recommendation of the parole board.