Burnham vows to resolve ‘long-running injustice’ of indefinite prison sentences in boost for thousands of inmates
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to resolve the "long-running injustice" of indefinite Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences as part of a wider plan to ease prison overcrowding while keeping the most serious offenders, such as those who killed PC Andrew Harper, behind bars. Options under consideration include releasing "lower risk" IPP prisoners, speeding up the removal of foreign national offenders, and making broader use of the prison estate, including housing male offenders in female prisons. He has asked justice secretary Alex Norris to fast-track the plan, saying he is "increasingly confident" it would reduce the numbers currently freed early while allowing tougher treatment of the most dangerous inmates.
IPP sentences, scrapped in 2012 but not applied retrospectively, have left thousands of prisoners without a release date years beyond their original tariff, some for relatively minor offences. The move follows a UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention finding last month that Britain is unlawfully detaining several over-tariff IPP prisoners, with lawyers now preparing a habeas corpus challenge at the High Court. A 2022 cross-party justice committee inquiry branded the sentences "irredeemably flawed" and called for resentencing, but successive governments have resisted, even as 96 IPP prisoners have taken their own lives in custody.
- Burnham vows to fix "unjust" indefinite IPP prison sentences
- Plan may free lower-risk IPP inmates, tighten rules for serious offenders
- Follows UN finding UK unlawfully detains some over-tariff IPP prisoners
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IPP sentences were a type of open-ended prison term introduced in England and Wales in 2005, designed to keep supposedly dangerous offenders locked up until a parole board judged them safe to release, with no fixed release date. They were scrapped in 2012 after widespread criticism, but that change was not made retrospective, so thousands of people already serving IPP sentences remained in prison, some many years beyond the original minimum term (tariff) set by the court for their offence.
Campaigners, lawyers and a cross-party committee of MPs have long argued this is unjust, pointing to cases involving relatively minor crimes and to a high number of self-inflicted deaths among IPP prisoners. The system has also drawn international scrutiny, adding pressure on ministers to act, while government has to balance this against public safety concerns and prison overcrowding.
Andy Burnham is the prime minister, and Alex Norris is the justice secretary he has tasked with drawing up a plan. PC Andrew Harper was a police officer killed in the line of duty, and his case is cited as an example of the serious offenders the government says will not benefit from any changes to sentencing policy.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters of resolving the IPP crisis argue that continuing to hold people years, sometimes over a decade, beyond their original tariff without a release date is fundamentally incompatible with British justice, since punishment should be proportionate and knowable rather than indefinite. They point to the cross-party justice committee's finding that the sentences are "irredeemably flawed", the UN ruling that some prisoners are being unlawfully detained, and the harrowing toll of 96 self-inflicted deaths as evidence that the moral and legal case for resentencing or releasing lower-risk offenders is overwhelming and long overdue.
The case against
Those urging caution argue that public protection must remain the overriding priority, and that IPP sentences were originally imposed precisely because courts judged these individuals to pose a significant risk to others. They contend that releasing prisoners, even those assessed as "lower risk", carries real danger given how difficult reoffending risk is to predict, and that victims and their families, such as those affected by the murder of PC Andrew Harper, deserve confidence that any reform will not come at the cost of public safety or a repeat of past tragedies.