Inmates get £1m pay-out for parole hearing delays

HUNDREDS of prisoners are to be paid more than £1million in compensation because of administrative blunders by officials.

Large sums of taxpayers’ money will be pocketed by criminals – including killers and sex offenders – whose parole hearings were delayed by the Ministry of Justice, a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Criminals who are freed following a hold-up can pocket around £650 for every month of delay. Even if they are refused parole, they can still claim around £50 a month.

The chairman of the Commons’ justice select committee, Bob Neill, branded the pay-outs a ‘waste of money’. MPs heard the Parole Board for England and Wales expected the total to be around £1million – thought to be the highest on record – in 2017-18 as it works through the backlog. This is roughly 5 per cent of its budget. In the past three years, at least 782 inmates have been awarded more than £1.4million.

The Parole Board said payments would fall sharply in the coming years. The MoJ said it had provided additional support and funding to help tackle the delays, and the board is ‘on track to eliminate the backlog’ by the year’s end.