My Lords, I shall contribute very briefly to this group of amendments. I fully support the views already expressed. I will not repeat them. I strongly commend the opening speech by my noble friend Lord Blunkett. He set out clearly the direction of travel which this House wishes to take.
I will speak briefly on Amendment 208B, particularly proposed new subsection (2)(b), which the noble Baroness, Lady Burt, has already eloquently described. It states the need for
“an assessment of the welfare and mental health support available to prisoners”—
still serving an IPP sentence—
“including measures to reduce the risk of self-harm and self-inflicted death”.
I declare my interests in the register as trustee and vice-chair of the Prison Reform Trust. Again, I thank it for the excellent work it has done over a number of years in this area, culminating in the report by Edgar, Harris and Webster, entitled No Life, No Freedom, No Future. I think this sums up the mood of the House this evening.
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People given IPP sentences are disproportionately more likely to have a pre-existing mental health problem and, obviously, that can be exacerbated by the fact that it is an indeterminate sentence. As the Ministry of Justice figures alluded to by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Brown, show, in 2020 IPP prisoners had one of the highest rates of self-harm, with 1,244 incidents per 1,000 prisoners, which is twice as high as the rate for determinate sentence prisoners of 620 per 1,000. It should be noted that in the Safety in Custody annual releases, self-harm and assault figures refer only to unreleased IPPs; incidents for recalled IPPs are hidden in the broader “recalled prisoners” category.
As we have heard, the fact that the imprisonment is indeterminate can leave people feeling hopeless and helpless yet afraid of seeking support which might prolong their imprisonment. Further, it can make it difficult for families to avoid relationship breakdown and estrangement from their relative serving the indeterminate sentence, as clearly evidenced in Annison and Straub’s 2019 report. Crucially, mental ill health can limit progress towards release, and serving an abolished sentence can make people feel—to quote Sarah Smart’s 2018 report for the Griffins Society—“disenfranchised, frustrated and distressed.”
We have heard clearly tonight why this appalling situation cannot continue. We must set the direction of travel tonight, and I hope that the Government will recognise that action needs to be taken. However, in the short term, people with mental health problems need proper assessment in prison so that their issues can be addressed effectively on their road to release from prison.