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Parole Board for Scotland: CORPORATE PLAN 2002
CHAPTER 3Objectives
1. The Board is responsible for managing the financial resources allocated to it to carry out its functions. The members are fully aware of the requirement that they must have due regard to economy in carrying out the functions of the Board. It is, therefore, one of the Board's primary objectives to manage operations efficiently and cost effectively thus ensuring that the taxpayer receives value for money in return for the resources allocated to the Board.
2. The members of the Board are aware that it is essential that the public in general have confidence in the parole system. It is of the utmost importance that the members assess as fully as possible the risk of a prisoner re-offending while on licence. In order to do this with a degree of confidence, the members require to be furnished with accurate and up to date information from those who provide the reports which make up the review dossier. Good quality reports are also essential to enable the Board to achieve a fair and consistent standard of assessment.
3. The members are also aware of the impact that waiting to be advised of the decision of the Board can have on prisoners. Because of this the Board always strives to ensure that unnecessary delays do not occur. Provided that the Board receives a properly completed review dossier timeously, it will endeavour to process all cases in a timely manner and within the 9 week time-scale agreed with the Scottish Ministers in respect of determinate sentence prisoners.
4. The Board places particular importance on prisoners being advised of the reasons underlying decisions and recommendations. For that reason officials of the Board's Secretariat send to prisoners an extract of that part of the Board's minutes relating to their particular case. The Board is aware of the importance that prisoners and those responsible for their management place on the Board providing meaningful reasons for its decisions and recommendations. The Board, therefore, aims to provide clearly stated reasons for both its decisions and recommendations which may be readily understood by prisoners and those who work with them.
5. The Board endeavours to respond positively and constructively to changes in the criminal justice system and to generate proposals for reform.
6. The Board seeks to maintain good working relationships with officials of the Scottish Prison Service, The Scottish Executive Justice Department and those agencies, statutory and non-statutory, involved in the parole system.
Performance Measures
7. The Board is aware of the need to ensure that prisoner's cases are dealt with consistently, timeously and efficiently in order that prisoners are not kept waiting unnecessarily for a decision in relation to their parole review.
8. The Board has adopted the following performance measures for the period covered by this Plan:
Determinate Sentence Prisoners
The proportion of interviews carried out with parole candidates within the agreed time-scale of within 5 weeks of referral.
The Board will endeavour to ensure that no less than 85% of interviews are conducted within 5 weeks of a determinate sentence prisoner's case being referred to the Board;
The proportion of cases considered at Board meetings within the agreed time-scale of within 9 weeks of referral.
The Board will endeavour to ensure that 85% of determinate sentence prisoners have their case considered at a meeting of the Board within 9 weeks of the case being referred to the Board by the Scottish Executive Justice Department.
Life Prisoners
Unless the prisoner, his legal agent or Scottish Ministers request a postponement, the first review of a life prisoner's case will be heard by a Tribunal within 3 days of the expiry of the punishment part set by the judiciary;**
Unless the prisoner, his legal agent or Scottish Ministers request a postponement, all second or subsequent reviews of a life prisoner's case will be heard by a Tribunal within 8 weeks of the case being referred to the Board;
That the Tribunal will issue its decision letter within 14 days of the end of the Tribunal hearing.
** This target does not apply to cases referred to the Board under the transitional arrangements designed to deal with those adult mandatory life prisoners who are currently held in custody, but have not yet had a punishment part set by the courts.
Values
9. In seeking to achieve the objectives set out above the Board will uphold the following values:
to treat all prisoners with fairness and respect;
to avoid unjustifiable discrimination;
to consider each case consistently, thoroughly and objectively, taking into account all evidence placed before it;
to discharge its responsibilities as openly as possible within the constraints of the criminal justice system; and
to support its staff, treating them with fairness and respect and enabling them to exercise their skills as fully as possible, while holding them accountable for their performance and expecting them to play their part in meeting the Board's objectives and adhering to these values.
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