- Prime minister Andy Burnham has ordered a review of Indefinite Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences, which have left thousands of inmates in prison without a release date.
- The review, requested from justice secretary Alex Norris, aims to address Britain’s prison crisis and free up much-needed space in overcrowded jails.
- IPP sentences, abolished in 2012 but not retrospectively, have been condemned by the United Nations as 'arbitrary detention' and a form of 'psychological torture' due to the prolonged uncertainty faced by prisoners.
- Lord David Blunkett, who introduced the sentences, has called their implementation his 'biggest regret,' while a 2022 cross-party justice committee inquiry found them 'irredeemably flawed.'
- The review is part of broader changes to the early prisoner release scheme, which will now exclude rapists and serious child sex offenders, and also includes efforts to free up space in women’s prisons and expedite the removal of foreign offenders.
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