Victims and Prisoners Act 2024

72 Application of certain Convention rights in prisoner release cases

(1) Subsection (3) applies where—

(a) in any proceedings, a court is determining a question which has arisen as to whether a relevant Convention right of a person has been breached, and

(b) the alleged breach arose in connection with a decision, under any prisoner release legislation, about whether the person should be released from custody.

(2) The “prisoner release legislation” is—

(a) Chapter 2 of Part 2 of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 (life sentences), including subordinate legislation made under that Chapter;

(b) Chapter 6 of Part 12 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (release, licences, supervision and recall of fixed-term prisoners), including subordinate legislation made under that Chapter.

(3) The court must give the greatest possible weight to the importance of reducing the risk to the public from persons who have committed offences in respect of which custodial sentences have been imposed.

(4) In this section—

• “court” includes a tribunal;

• “custodial sentence” means a sentence specified in regulations made by the Secretary of State;

• “relevant Convention right” means any Convention right other than the Convention rights set out in the following Articles of the Convention—

  (a)

  Article 2 (right to life);

  (b)

  Article 3 (prohibition of torture);

  (c)

  Article 4(1) (prohibition of slavery);

  (d)

  Article 7 (no punishment without law).

(5) In this section, the following terms have the same meanings as in the Human Rights Act 1998—

• “the Convention”;

• “Convention right”;

• “subordinate legislation”.