The Parole Board for Scotland () is a

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non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process o ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

first established in 1967, with responsibility for

parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

decisions. Its decision making and operating are independent of the

Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in ...

, and many of its decisions are binding on Scottish Ministers. The Parole Board has statutory powers to: * Recommend the release of prisoners with determinate sentences or extended sentences of 4 years or more (with

licence A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

where required); * Direct the release of prisoners with

life sentences Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are co ...

on life licence; * Recommend the conditions to be attached to prisoners' non-parole licences; * Recommend the recall to prison, in the public interest, of anyone released on parole, non-parole or life licence; * Direct the re-release of prisoners recalled to prison. The Parole Board also has the power to advise the

Scottish Ministers The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in t ...

on additional conditions on prisoners' release licences, and it operates as

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for alleged breaches of Home Detention Curfew. The Parole Board can only make a determination where the Scottish Ministers refer a case. John Watt is the current chairman having been appointed to that position on 1 January 2013.

Remit and jurisdiction

Criminal justice system

The Parole Board is part of the

criminal justice Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...

system in Scotland. It is a Tribunal Non-Departmental Public Body which has a number of statutory functions but operates independently from the Scottish Government. It is responsible for making important decisions about the release and recall of long term prisoners, and for setting licence conditions for a range of prisoners to help manage their risk in the community on release.

Referral by Scottish Ministers

The Parole Board has no statutory powers to consider the case of a prisoner unless the case has been referred to it by Scottish Ministers. For each case it receives a range of information that has been prepared by relevant professionals including: a home background report, a prison social work report, a trial judge report (if available), and where appropriate psychological and/or psychiatric report, sentence management reports and prisoner misconduct reports.

Information considered

The Parole Board gives consideration to any information that it receives, including written comments that a victim of a crime can supply about the release of the offender (under the Victim Notification Scheme). Decisions made by the Board are intended to focus on the potential risk a prisoner might pose to the community.

Evaluation

In 2011, an

Audit Scotland Audit Scotland () is an independent public body responsible for auditing most of Scotland's public organisations. These include the Scottish Government, local councils and NHS Scotland. Auditing role It audits over 220 organisations, includin ...

review of Scotland’s criminal justice system noted that the Parole Board is sometimes limited in its ability to grant parole because of the lack of availability of rehabilitation programmes in prison.

Legislation

Procedures around the release of prisoners sentenced on or after 1 October 1993 are detailed in the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993. The legislation covering the parole consideration in relation to these prisoners is set out in the Parole Board (Scotland) Rules 2001. Appointments to the Board are regulated by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland. John Watt was appointed as chairman on 1 January 2013.

References

External links

* {{CriminalJusticeScotland Parole Tribunals of the Scottish Government Penal system in Scotland