Nearly 100 prisoners serving controversial imprisonment for public protection sentences went on to commit offences including rape, murder and manslaughter after their release, according to government figures that underline the risks facing ministers as they consider abolishing the indefinite sentencing regime.
A new Ministry of Justice report examining offenders serving imprisonment for public protection, or IPP, sentences found that prisoners considered high-risk were more likely to be recalled to custody than other offenders supervised by the probation service.
The findings come as Prime Minister Andy Burnham considers legislation to scrap IPP sentences, potentially freeing hundreds of prison places as part of a wider attempt to ease pressure on the overcrowded prison system.
On his first day facing Parliament as Prime Minister, Burnham told MPs he was “grasping the nettle” on the issue.
Mr Burnham said Parliament had ignored IPP “too long” and “which to this day keeps people behind bars, despite already having served more than their sentences”.
There are currently 2,271 men and women serving IPP sentences, which allow offenders to be detained indefinitely after completing their minimum tariff if they are judged to remain a threat to the public.
The sentences were primarily imposed on offenders convicted of violent and sexual crimes before the regime was abolished for new cases. However, those already sentenced under the legislation remain subject to its provisions.
Between 2014-15 and 2023-24, 97 former IPP prisoners committed serious further offences after their release, according to Ministry of Justice data. The offences included murder, manslaughter, rape, sexual assault, kidnapping, arson and aggravated burglary.
Separate written parliamentary questions answered by the MoJ showed that eight murders were committed between 2010 and 2018 by offenders who had previously received IPP sentences.
The figures are likely to intensify the political argument over whether the government can safely accelerate the release of prisoners serving indefinite sentences.
One former IPP prisoner who went on to kill after his release was David Taylor, who was freed in 2013 after serving a sentence for aggravated burglary and possession of an offensive weapon.
Taylor had claimed to have studied humanistic psychology while in custody and was released from prison. In 2022, he murdered his girlfriend, whose body was never found.
While subsequently in custody, he attempted to murder a Greater Manchester Police detective investigating his girlfriend’s disappearance. He later murdered Kyle Bevan, a convicted child killer, at HMP Wakefield in June this year.
Taylor has since been given a whole-life order, meaning he will never be released.
The government’s proposed reforms have drawn fierce criticism from the Conservative opposition, which has accused Labour of allowing concerns about prison capacity to override public protection.
Addressing the House of Commons, Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, described the government’s approach as a “fag-packet policy written to get them out of this crisis”.
Alex Norris had earlier told MPs that the early release of prisoners was “part of business as usual” for the Labour government.
Mr Timothy told the Commons: “Describing the early release of criminals, a dangerous and irresponsible policy, as ‘business as usual’ is not just an insult to victims, but a dereliction of duty.”
Mr Norris responded that there was “no easy solution” to the prison crisis and urged his Conservative counterpart to “engage in a process to bring that to its resolution”.
The dispute highlights the increasingly difficult balance facing the government as it seeks to address chronic overcrowding in England and Wales’s prisons while avoiding the political consequences of serious crimes committed by offenders released under a more permissive regime.
For ministers, the IPP system presents a particularly fraught dilemma. Campaigners have long argued that the sentences are unjust because offenders can remain in prison for years beyond their original minimum terms. But the latest MoJ figures also illustrate why successive governments have struggled to resolve the issue.
Burnham’s decision to confront the question could therefore become one of the first significant tests of his government’s approach to criminal justice, pitting pressure to reduce the prison population against the enduring obligation to protect the public.
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