HC Deb 24 March 1999 vol 328 c236W
Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answers of 18 March 1999,Official Report, column 721, and 11 March 1999, Official Report, column 332, on life prisoners, on the basis of what evidence the Parole Board decided that Mr. Tangney fulfilled the conditions that the life sentence prisoner is trustworthy enough not to abscond. [78270]

Mr. George Howarth

The Parole Board recommended that Mr. Tangney be transferred to open conditions on the basis of reports and recommendations from prison and probation staff that Mr. Tangney's attitudes and behaviour had improved to the point where he could be trusted in open conditions. Ministers accepted the Board's recommendation taking account of those reports and recommendations and Mr. Tangney's overall progress in prison, and reduction in risk, since the offence for which his mandatory life sentence was imposed.