UN expert urges UK Government to prioritise the review of indefinite prison sentences

GENEVA – An independent human rights expert today called on the recently elected UK Government to review the sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) prisoners, stressing the need for the remaining IPP prisoners to be resentenced without delay, and for the indeterminate sentence system to be brought to a definitive close.

“IPP sentences are inhuman treatment and, in many cases, amount to psychological torture,” said Alice Jill Edwards, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture.

“While I welcome the new UK Government’s commitment to address severe overcrowding in the British criminal justice system, including the reduction of sentences, it is extremely disappointing that the emergency measures announced recently by the Secretary of State for Justice do not apply to individuals currently serving an IPP sentence.”

IPP sentences were indeterminate sentences, handed down by courts in England and Wales between 2005 and 2012 to offenders who were considered to pose a significant risk of causing serious harm to the public, until they no longer represented such a risk. However, they swept up many people who had committed relatively minor crimes, several of whom remain behind bars years after a normal sentence would have ended. The cancellation of the scheme was not retrospective.

“I invite the new Government to reconsider a full or partial re-sentencing exercise of IPP-sentenced individuals as a matter of priority. The IPP sentencing scheme causes severe distress, fear, depression and anxiety, including for families, and may result in physical and psychological damage, including incidents of self-harm, suicide attempts and suicides,” Edwards said.

Close to 2,800 people currently remain in prison serving an IPP sentence, with more than 200 others held in secure hospitals. In 2022, the Justice Committee of the UK’s House of Commons found the system to be “irredeemably flawed” and recommended that a re-sentencing exercise of all IPP-sentenced individuals be conducted.

“The 2024 Victims and Prisoners Act, which was passed in the last parliament, provided for several useful measures to start to bring IPP sentences to an end,” Edwards said.

“I encourage the swift implementation of these measures and remain ready to support the authorities in any effort to finally end these sentences, while ensuring rehabilitation and access to adequate reparations for affected prisoners.”

The Special Rapporteur and other independent experts have raised these issues with the new UK Government.