National Preventive Mechanism Eleventh Annual Report 2019–20 Prisons Significant concerns around safety, overcrowding and deaths in prisons across the UK remain. A range of reviews, policies and plans were published in 2019–20, while new legislation has focused on sentencing changes, with some developments around prisoner voting rights. In our 10th Annual Report we noted that in February 2019 the then Secretary of State for Justice for England and Wales, David Gauke, acknowledged the high rate of imprisonment and proposed that caution be exercised in continuing to increase sentences. He also accepted there was a very strong case for abolishing short prison sentences (with some exceptions) and making greater use of community orders, though no commitment was made to legislate.40 Since then there has been a shift in the rhetoric around sentencing and crime, with a move away from discouraging short sentences in England and Wales. New legislation concerning prisoners In February 2020, further terror legislation came into force following the terrorist attacks at Fishmongers Hall, London and in Streatham which were committed by individuals who had previously been convicted of terror offences and released automatically at the halfway point of their sentence on licence. Emergency legislation was introduced under the Terrorist Offenders (Restriction of Early Release) Act 2020. This legislation retrospectively ended automatic early release for terrorist offenders in the UK serving standard determinate sentences, requiring them to spend a minimum of two‑thirds of their term in prison before 40 41 42 20 being considered for release by the Parole Board. The UK government intends to increase further the length of prison sentences for those convicted of terrorist offences under the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill 2020. This includes the creation of a new ‘Serious Terrorist Sentence, with a minimum 14-year jail term,’ for dangerous offenders who risked multiple lives as a result of their offending. The IRTL called for the publication of statistics on the success rate of applications for warrants of further detention under Schedule 8 to the Terrorism Act 2020. The government accepted this recommendation in its formal response published in October 2020.41 The IRTL also undertook an independent review of multi‑agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA), which was published in May 2020.42 As well as the changes to sentencing and parole brought in by terror legislation, the Release of Prisoners (Alteration of Relevant Proportion of Sentence) Order 2019 moves the release point in England and Wales from halfway through a custodial sentence to twothirds of the way through, for those convicted of relevant violent and sexual offences. This Order was part of the current government’s election manifesto and follows the significant controversy around the release on licence of a taxi driver, found guilty of 19 sexual offences, who had served the minimum term of a (now repealed) indeterminate ‘Imprisonment for Public Protection’ sentence. The Order came into force on 1 April 2020 and its provisions have the effect of modifying the application of relevant sentences of imprisonment (under s. 237(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003) MoJ, February 2019, ‘Beyond prison, redefining punishment’: David Gauke speech, https://www.gov.uk/government/ speeches/beyond-prison-redefining-punishment-david-gauke-speech [accessed 24/08/2020] UK Government, October 2020, Response to the operation of the Terrorism Acts in 2018 Report, https://www.gov.uk/ government/publications/response-to-the-operation-of-the-terrorism-acts-in-2018-report, [accessed 01/12/2020] This review was published May 2020, available: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/ uploads/attachment_data/file/913983/supervision-terrorism-and-terrorism-risk-offenders-review.pdf [accessed 14/10/2020]