The government has rejected MPs’ recommendation to review and re-sentence all Imprisonment for Public Protections (IPP) sentences currently being served.
IPP sentences, which allow for indefinite terms of imprisonment, were scrapped in 2012, but nearly 3,000 people remain in prison under their terms, with almost half of these having been recalled to prison after earlier being released. The Justice Committee denounced them as ‘irredeemably flawed’, in a report in September.
Justice committee chair Sir Bob Neill said last week: ‘We are not only disappointed with this government response but genuinely surprised.’
