Burnham makes major pledge to scrap indefinite jail terms

• The Prime Minister has announced that legislation will be introduced to end indefinite Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) jail terms by the end of this Parliament.
• The Justice Secretary will outline the overhaul to Parliament, which includes creating a cross-party oversight group to carefully manage sentence terminations.
• Andy Burnham backed the decision as a common-sense measure to fix long-standing injustices where individuals served far beyond their original tariffs.
• IPP sentences were outlawed in 2012 without retrospective effect, leaving almost 2,300 prisoners trapped, including over 800 who have never been released.
• Campaigners and reform organisations welcomed the decision as a major victory following years of fighting and a damning United Nations report on arbitrary detention.

IN FULL

Burnham’s pledge to scrap indefinite jail terms brings campaigners ‘justice and hope’ after years of anguish