Parole Board for Scotland
Logo of the Parole Board for Scotland
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| Agency overview | |
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| Type | tribunal non-departmental public body |
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Headquarters | Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh, EH11 3XD |
| Minister responsible | |
| Agency executives |
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| Parent department | Justice Directorate of the Scottish Government |
| Key document |
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| Website | www |
| Map | |
Scotland in the UK and Europe
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The Parole Board for Scotland is a tribunal non-departmental public body in Scotland first established in 1967, with responsibility for parole decisions. Its decision making and operating are independent of the Scottish Government, and many of its decisions are binding on Scottish Minister. The Parole Board has statutory powers to:
The Parole Board also has the power to advise the Scottish Ministers on additional conditions on prisoners' release licences, and it operates as appellate body for alleged breaches of Home Detention Curfew. The Parole Board can only make a determination where the Scottish Ministers refer a case.
John Watt is the current chairman having been appointed to that position on 1 January 2013.
The Parole Board is part of the criminal justice system in Scotland. It is a Tribunal Non-Departmental Public Body which has a number of statutory functions but operates independently from the Scottish Government. It is responsible for making important decisions about the release and recall of long term prisoners, and for setting licence conditions for a range of prisoners to help manage their risk in the community on release.
The Parole Board has no statutory powers to consider the case of a prisoner unless the case has been referred to it by Scottish Ministers. For each case it receives a range of information that has been prepared by relevant professionals including: a home background report, a prison social work report, a trial judge report (if available), and where appropriate psychological and/or psychiatric report, sentence management reports and prisoner misconduct reports.
The Parole Board gives consideration to any information that it receives, including written comments that a victim of a crime can supply about the release of the offender (under the Victim Notification Scheme). Decisions made by the Board are intended to focus on the potential risk a prisoner might pose to the community.
In 2011, an Audit Scotland review of Scotland’s criminal justice system noted that the Parole Board is sometimes limited in its ability to grant parole because of the lack of availability of rehabilitation programmes in prison.
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