One of the early policies mentioned by Andy Burnham in his first statement to the House of Commons was his determination to end indefinite sentences.
The prime minister said that when he left parliament to be mayor of Greater Manchester 10 years ago, he was worried about this issue – and he came back to find that it had not been resolved. He said: “We have to do better, don’t we?”
He appeared to recognise that there were political risks to tackling the problem, because it is all too easy for rabble-rousing opposition politicians to try to scare the public about the release of prisoners who may or may not be dangerous.
But he said: “I believe the public will support me in recognising the clear difference between those who have served their time and more, and those who have not.”
This is a welcome and courageous change in approach. Indefinite sentences, known as Imprisonment for Public Protection or IPP, were introduced by the Labour government of Sir Tony Blair, intended for a very small number of criminals who were judged to be a continuing danger to the public.
Lord Blunkett, the home secretary who introduced the legislation, considered it to have been one of his biggest mistakes in government. The law was used in too many cases, and led to thousands of prisoners being kept behind bars for many years beyond their original sentences, which in some cases were for relatively minor offences.
Some were repeatedly ruled unsafe for release and others were recalled to prison for breaching conditions of their release, which in some cases would last for life.
The law was repealed by the coalition government in 2012 because it was so obviously contrary to the basic principles of justice. Above all, it meant that some people could end up serving vastly longer sentences than others convicted of a similar offence.
Yet, its terms continued to apply to existing IPP prisoners. There are still, 14 years later, more than 2,000 prisoners who are locked up, four-fifths of them serving more than 10 years over their original sentence.
Our reporter Amy-Clare Martin has led the campaign by The Independent to end IPP sentences. We congratulate her on her persistence, and we are pleased that it has succeeded in persuading the government at the highest level to end the injustice. We pay tribute to all the lawyers, campaigners and politicians who have urged successive ministers and prime ministers to go further than the painfully slow process of the case-by-case review of IPP prisoners.
In particular, we thank John Thomas, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, who brought his experience of the criminal justice system to bear on the fundamental unfairness of “keeping people behind bars despite already having served more than their sentences”, as the prime minister put it today.
The end of indefinite sentences cannot happen overnight, and it is not an instant solution to the problem of prison overcrowding. But it is the right thing to do, and we give Mr Burnham credit for, as he put it, “grasping the nettle on an issue this House has ignored for too long”.
Whatever our doubts about some parts of his programme, we must record our appreciation for his leadership in tackling this difficult issue. He said: “This is politics done differently. Problem-solving over point-scoring. It is what the country needs, it is what the public wants more of, and it will characterise my time in office.”
We wish the prime minister well in his attempt to take the British people into his confidence, and commend him on his belief that they will reward him for his courage in tackling this longstanding injustice.
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