IPP Sentence

Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) was created by section 225 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. It applied where an offender aged 18 or over was convicted of a serious offence and the sentencing court was 'of the opinion that there is a significant risk to members of the public of serious harm occasioned by the commission by him of further specified offences'. Where the offence did not itself carry a maximum of life imprisonment, or the court did not consider a life sentence justified by the seriousness of the offending, 'the court must impose a sentence of imprisonment for public protection' instead of a determinate term.

The defining feature of the sentence was its indeterminate length: an IPP sentence was, by section 225(4), 'a sentence of imprisonment for an indeterminate period, subject to the provisions of Chapter 2 of Part 2 of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 ... as to the release of prisoners and duration of licences'. A prisoner served a fixed minimum term (the 'tariff') reflecting the seriousness of the offence, but could not be released once that tariff expired unless and until the Parole Board was satisfied it was no longer necessary for the protection of the public that the prisoner remain confined.

The IPP sentence was abolished prospectively by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, meaning it can no longer be imposed on new offenders, but the abolition was not retrospective: prisoners already serving IPP sentences remained subject to them, and the Parole Board's general description of its role — reviewing a prisoner's dossier, holding oral hearings where required, and directing release only once satisfied the risk can be safely managed in the community — continues to determine when long-serving IPP prisoners can be released or moved to open conditions.