A coalition of 70 criminal justice experts, civil society organisations, leading activists, and campaigners published an open letter to Keir Starmer’s new Labour Government and the Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, this month, calling on them to deliver crucial reforms to Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences, a national scandal which has claimed 121 lives since 2005.
The open letter, which was hand delivered to the Ministry of Justice, sets out demands of the Labour Government to make good on a commitment it made in Opposition in May 2024 – to “work at pace to make progress on IPPs” – within its first 100 days in power. The letter calls on the new Government to:
- Bring all the IPP-related provisions in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 into force.
- Publish the first annual report on IPP, which was due to be published by the end of March 2024.
- Make a ministerial statement to Parliament, setting out the new Government’s plans and timetable to address all the outstanding challenges affecting those under an IPP sentence.
- Commit to set up an expert committee, in line with the recommendation of the former Justice Select Committee, to advise on the practicalities of a resentencing exercise.
Signatories to the letter included Amnesty International, The National Association of Probation Officers, The Howard League for Penal Reform, Prison Reform Trust, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, UNGRIPP, Inquest, Global Rights Compliance, and other leaders in the justice and human rights sectors.
The Communication Group plc supported publication of the letter in its capacity advising The Institute of Now, an organisation committed to enabling meaningful change for the victims of IPP sentences, and signatory of the open letter. A bespoke media engagement strategy was designed and implemented, securing coverage across UK national, regional and specialist legal media, including ITV News, BBC News, Sky News, The Independent, City AM, and Solicitors Journal, among others.
