Julian Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Knight on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential benefits of proposals to deny parole or release to people incarcerated for charges of murder for as long as they refuse to disclose the whereabouts of their victim’s remains.

Andrew Selous

I sympathise with the anguish caused to the families of victims where the offender wilfully refuses to disclose the whereabouts of their loved one. Such behaviour is already taken into account by the court when sentencing the offender, and by the independent Parole Board when assessing an offender’s continuing risk for the purposes of deciding whether he or she is eligible for possible release. The Parole Board has at my request, however, agreed to review its guidance on this particular issue as part of a review of all its guidance in 2016.