Andy Burnham pledge to end indefinite prison terms ‘a step towards healing’

Campaigners welcome plan to bring IPP sentences to a close but say the move is long overdue Campaigners have hailed Andy Burnham’s pledge to bring an end to indefinite jail terms as “a day that thousands of families have spent years fighting for”. The prime minister has said he will “end the injustice” of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences during this parliament, meaning people will no longer be trapped indefinitely under a sentence abolished more than a decade ago. The IPP sentence was a form of indeterminate sentence in which offenders were given a minimum jail tariff but no maximum for a range of crimes. Introduced in 2005, IPPs were designed for the indefinite detention of serious offenders who were perceived to be a risk to the public, but were used much more widely than intended and issued to offenders who committed low-level crimes. The sentence was scrapped in 2012 but its abolition was not retrospective. Those given an IPP sentence were, in addition, placed on licence indefinitely after release, and were only eligible to have their licence removed after 10 years. The 10-year period was overturned last year and IPP prisoners may now seek terminatio