Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

That is one of the better descriptions of it that I have heard. I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who always has a felicitous choice of phrase. I strongly suspect that I might not be entirely in agreement with all my right hon. and hon. Friends on new clause 29. I hasten to say that that causes me no disquiet. I am referring to sentences of indeterminate imprisonment, or imprisonment for public protection. My hon. and learned Friend the Member for Harborough is entirely right to say that those who are serving IPPs at the termination of the tariff period are the most difficult group of prisoners to manage. IPPs are inherently unjust, because they do not give any kind of certainty about the term that a person should serve. I am well aware of the rationale behind such sentences, which is that they are for the protection of the public, in that a person will not be released until the responsible authorities think that they are safe to release, but it is difficult to judge when a person is safe to release. In the current climate, I suspect that many of the relevant authorities are guarding their back, and are not releasing people because of the uncertainty that necessarily arises. A lot of people are serving, or are likely to serve, terms of imprisonment that are excessive, given what they have done.