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Parole Board Annual Report
11/01/2012
The Parole Board for Scotland Annual Report 2010-11 was published today.
The report shows, among other things, that out of 606 determinate sentence prisoners whose cases were referred to the Board, 170 (or 28 per cent) were recommended for release on parole.
The number of life sentence prisoners released on license in circumstances where a Tribunal of the Board was satisfied that it was no longer necessary for the protection of the public that the prisoner should be confined was 48.
The number of prisoners who were granted parole and then subsequently referred back to the Board for consideration for recall to custody was 73 during the year whereas the number of prisoners who were released at the two-thirds point of their sentence as required by law and then subsequently recalled was higher at 117 for the year.
The number of determinate sentence prisoners who opted out of consideration by the Board was 64 - a sharp increase from 2009-10.
Chairman of the Board Sandy Cameron CBE said:
"Public safety is the Parole Board's number one consideration. Once again I believe that the information in this year's report shows that the decisions we take are based upon considered judgement.
"The Board's workload has remained at a similar level to previous years and members continue to work hard to ensure that matters which have a direct impact on the safety of Scotland's communities are dealt with carefully and consistently.
"Dealing with cases appropriately within the timescaIes demanded by law is extremely important and I am pleased to report that as a result of considerable efforts, there is no longer any backlog of cases from previous years and they have all been fully dealt with.
"The vast majority of those released on parole abide by their licence conditions and stay on the right side of the law, but it will be noted that there is a continuing increase year on year in the number of extended sentence prisoners who have been recalled as a result of breaching their licence conditions.
"There is little information as to why, but this is a matter which would benefit from detailed research so that we can learn more about why a minority find the transition back into the community difficult."
The Parole Board takes decisions on the release of life sentence prisoners and on the timing of the release on parole of determinate sentence prisoners serving sentences of four years or more.
Prisoners sentenced to four years' imprisonment or more on or after October 1, 1993 are automatically released from custody when they have served two-thirds of the sentence.