Numbers

The overall population of people serving an IPP sentence in prison has broadly decreased overtime. Figures published in Offender Management Statistics Quarterly show that the total prison population was 5,040 on 30 June 2015 and has since decreased to 2,544 as of 31 March 2025. As of 31 March 2025, there were 1,012 unreleased IPP prisoners and 1,532 recalled IPP prisoners. In other words, more than twelve years after the sentence was abolished, almost three out of ten (29.2%) people remain in prison.

Early terminations

The main positive action that the current Government has taken is to reduce the period that people released from an IPP must service on licence. This had been indefinite but from 1 November 2024:

” A person serving an IPP who was FIRST released five years or more ago AND has been in the community continuously for the last two years will automatically have their licence terminated. If they have not yet had a termination review but were released over three years ago, they will become entitled to a Parole Board review for termination of their licence.”

The report shows that 1,742 people had their licence automatically terminated on 1 November 2024, reducing the number of people serving an IPP in the community from 2,885 to 1,376.

Mental health

There is a host of research evidence on the adverse impact on people’s mental health of being trapped in a sentence with little hope of release despite having, in many case, served more than a decade longer inside than the tariff set by the sentencing judge. On 31 December last year, there remained 233 people serving IPPs who were in secure hospitals. This figure remains almost unchanged from a decade earlier (264 at the end of 2014).

Stuck in prison

Although the changes in the law have gone some way to reduce the burden on people serving an IPP sentence who have been released, they have no impact on the 1,012 on the 12% of people who have been released. In the whole of 2024, just 172 people were released from their IPP sentence for the first time, despite the fact that almost all had served much longer than their tariff.

Recalls remain a huge problem

The number of recalls (figures are for recalls not individuals) has remained almost unmoved since 2018 when there were 637 recalls. In 2024, there were 619. Next year’s figures should show a real fall as there will be a big reduction in the number of people serving their IPP sentence in the community.

Time spent on recall

To my mind one of the most depressing facts in this report is that despite all the talk of progression plans, the average (mean) time spent in prison following recall has broadly increased since 2021. In the last quarter of last year, the average time that people recalled in prison from an IPP sentence as 25 months.