Guidance

Member Case Assessment (December 2023 v2.1)

Revised Guidance on Member Case Assessment.

Applies to England and Wales

Documents

Member Case Assessment (December 2023 v2.1)

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Details

This guidance is for Parole Board members carrying out Member Case Assessment (MCA) work. Every case referred to the Parole Board is required to go through the MCA process.

MCA has been described as a form of ‘triage’ because each case, at the earliest opportunity (the point of referral), is considered by an accredited MCA member who determines whether the case can be concluded on the papers or sets out additional steps that are needed for the matter to be determined fairly and swiftly.

The MCA Guidance provides an overview of the MCA process, options to members undertaking this work, and detailed guidance on best practice addressing both procedural and practical issues.

This has been revised to reflect:

  • The Secretary of State’s Directions on Open Conditions of 1 August 2023.
  • The judgment in the case of Dich and Murphy [2023] EWHC 945 (Admin)
  • The judgment in the case of Pearce [2023] UKSC 13 on appeal from [2022] EWCA Civ 4.
  • Risk Assessed Recall Review.
  • Determinate sentence cases with less than 26 weeks (previously 20) until SED should not be sent to Oral Hearing.
  • MCA representations can only be submitted before the case is panelled.

This replaces all previous Parole Board guidance on MCA.

Updates to this page

Published 7 February 2024
Last updated 7 December 2022 + show all updates
  1. First published.

  2. This has been updated to include the most up to date guidance.

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