The Parole Board for England & Wales Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21
The Board has laid before Parliament its Annual Report and Accounts for 2020/21.
Applies to England and Wales
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The Parole Board’s Chair and Chief Executive issued the below joint statement in the report.
2020/21 has been a uniquely challenging year for the Parole Board due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, the Parole Board has found ways of safely progressing cases and has actually been able to complete more cases than in the previous year.
In March 2020 the difficult decision was taken to pause all hearings in prisons. Since then, staff and members have been required to work from home wherever possible to reduce the spread of the virus. Only a handful of face-to-face hearings have been possible, for those cases that required it. Instead, almost all cases have been progressed through remote hearings or on the papers.
The Parole Board was able to move at pace to a virtual model due to its significant investment in IT capability in recent years. However, the Parole Board would also like to record their thanks to HM Prison Service which quickly ramped up its virtual hearing capacity over the last year, enabling the listing of all hearings that required a virtual hearing without building a backlog of cases.
Despite significant changes to its operating model, the release rate has remained stable at roughly one in four prisoners being released following a review of their case by the Parole Board. The Parole Board has also maintained its strong record on public protection. During 2020/21, 0.54% of prisoners released by the Parole Board were alleged to have committed a Serious Further Offence. This compares favourably with other parole jurisdictions around the world; however, each case is of concern and is thoroughly reviewed to ensure that any learning takes place.
By the end of the reporting year:
- In spite of COVID-19, 9,202 hearings took place almost all via video or telephone, the highest number of hearings ever held.
- A record 16,443 cases were concluded.
- 4,289 prisoners were released, whilst 11,437 remained in prison for the protection of the public
- Against every metric, the number of cases awaiting a Parole Board assessment was down noticeably (with 50% fewer cases awaiting an initial paper assessment at the Member Case Assessment Stage: and 25% fewer cases awaiting a hearing date)
Whilst the primary focus has been progressing cases remotely; a huge amount of other work has taken place:
- The Parole Board has trained 46 new Panel Chairs to ensure there was sufficient members to meet future business demand
- 66 new members joined the Parole Board and have been trained and inducted remotely
- The Parole Board has continued to improve the diversity of its membership and the percentage of members recorded as being from a BAME background has now increased to 17%
- Training has continued to be delivered digitally; including some vital further training to ensure the Parole Board is able to appropriately deal with terrorism cases
- The Parole Board has issued new up to date guidance to its members including updated guidance on the Prisoner (Disclosure of Information about Victims) Act 2020
- 6,066 summaries have been requested by victims and 351 reconsideration applications have been processed
- The Parole Board has provided significant input to the Tailored Review of the Parole Board and the Root and Branch Review of the parole system
The conclusions of the Root and Branch Review are particularly important to the Parole Board; and is a unique opportunity. The review will result in changes to the system and the Parole Board’s constitution that further improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Finally, the Parole Board would like to record its thanks to its members and staff. 2020/21 has not been an easy year and everybody has responded to the challenges in an exemplary fashion.