The government has pledged to bring forward IPP sentence legislation to terminate the open-ended jail terms before the end of this Parliament, with ministers promising a cross-party oversight group and a careful approach to implementation. Andy Burnham announced the move, saying the justice secretary would set out the plans to Parliament on Tuesday.
What are IPP sentences and why are they being ended?
Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences were introduced under New Labour as a tough-on-crime measure and were handed to many repeat offenders, even where their crimes were minor. The sentences were outlawed in 2012 but not retrospectively, leaving thousands in prison beyond their original tariff with no guaranteed release date. Some prisoners have now served up to 22 times longer than their original tariff.
Burnham told the BBC he had been faced with a situation where people on those sentences had more than served their time and were not being released, while others who had committed very serious crimes were being let out early. ‘The judgement I’ve made is the public, in my view, would prefer a situation where people who have served their time to be considered for release before those who haven’t,’ he said.
He said he had listened to the voices of families with loved ones convicted under IPP sentences. ‘There was an injustice in many cases where people were left in prison with no prospect of release, and that has caused real damage, obviously, to those people, and a real sense of unfairness,’ he added.
IPP sentence legislation: the steps already taken
Legislative reform has been building. The House of Commons Library records that the government legislated to reduce the qualifying period for licence termination from ten years to three, a provision set out in section 66 of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, which received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024.
From 1 February 2025, around 600 people serving the IPP sentence became eligible immediately for a licence termination review by the Parole Board, seven years earlier than they would have been under the previous provisions, according to the Howard League. The same source notes that Dr Alice Jill Edwards, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture, said in 2025 that IPP sentences amounted to ‘psychological torture’.
Figures published by 2BR show the number of unreleased IPP prisoners fell by 14% to 1,012 in the twelve months to 31 March 2025, though thousands more remain on licence in the community.
Campaigners and families react to the pledge
Shirley Debono, whose son Shaun Lloyd has been recalled five times and served nearly 14 years for snatching a phone, said she was ‘absolutely overwhelmed’. Debono, who co-founded IPP Committee in Action, said: ‘After all these years of campaigning, fighting, being ignored and watching IPP prisoners and their families suffer, to finally hear the prime minister say he will end the injustice of IPP sentences this parliament feels incredible.’
She added: ‘After 12 years of campaigning, this is a massive moment.’ Her focus now, she said, is ensuring no one is left behind by the legislation being drafted.
Campaign group United Group for Reform of IPP said the IPP nightmare may finally be ending, halting ‘decades of disproportionate punishment, institutional trauma, and loss of hope’. Chief executive Marc Conway said: ‘This is a day that thousands of families have spent years fighting for. For too long, their loved ones have been trapped by a sentence that was acknowledged as flawed over a decade ago.’
Conway added: ‘While we welcome this critical action by the government, we do so with heavy hearts for those who did not live to see this day, and for the families torn apart by years of endless uncertainty. Legislation alone cannot undo twenty years of damage, but it is the essential first step toward healing.’
The group urged the Ministry of Justice and probation services to ensure implementation is swift, transparent, and accompanied by comprehensive community and mental health support for all those transitioning off IPP licences and out of custody.
The pledge comes too late for 96 IPP prisoners who took their own lives after losing hope of release, including Tommy Nicol, who died aged 37 in 2015. Before his death, Nicol described his IPP sentence as ‘psychological torture of a person who is doing 99 years.’
