Guidance

Member Case Assessment (MCA) Guidance

Guidance for Parole Board members carrying out Member Case Assessment (MCA) work

Applies to England and Wales

Documents

MCA Member Guidance

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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 is as a form of ‘triage’ because each case, at the earliest opportunity (the point of referral), is considered by an accredited MCA member who either determines that 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.

The guidance has been updated to reflect changes introduced in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 and the Parole Board (Amendment) Rules 2024, as well as other changes in practice.

This replaces all previous Parole Board guidance on MCA.

Updates to this page

Published 24 February 2025
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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