Lord Moylan: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many prisoners subject to Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences in England and Wales were progressed to open conditions but subsequently returned to closed conditions in each year since 2017.
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Wolfson of Tredegar, QC):
Year Number of transfers of IPP prisoners from predominant function ‘Open’ to predominant function ‘Closed’ prisons
2017 235
2018 205
2019 159
2020 116
Note: These figures exclude those recalled from IPP sentences.
Data sources and quality
The figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. Almost invariably, an IPP prisoner will be approved for open conditions only in response to a positive recommendation from the Parole Board. Recently, the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Justice announced that there would be greater ministerial scrutiny of the moves of indeterminate sentence prisoners to open conditions. A prisoner in open conditions will be returned to closed conditions in response to poor behaviour or evidence of increased risk.