Parole Board chief ’s ’significant concern’ over diversity

Unconscious bias in the recruitment process is feared to have led to the Parole Board having no black members, according to its chairwoman.

Caroline Corby said it was of “significant concern” to her, adding that the approach to recruitment will change.

Ms Corby also outlined how the board, which assesses whether serving prisoners in England and Wales are safe to be released into the com- munity or moved to open conditions, had suffered a “loss of confidence” following the John Worboys case.

She said it was hard to measure if members were more risk-averse following the case, although she noted that the release rate was usually around 49% but decreased to about 42% in the immediate aftermath and has since increased to 46%, with more adjournments and deferrals.

The Parole Board sparked huge controversy in January by ruling that Worboys, known as the black cab rapist, was safe to be freed after around a decade behind bars.

The board’s release direction was quashed by the High Court in March and changes were made, including a transparency drive over its decision

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Corby said of the board’s di- versity: “I am a little bit concerned about this.

“Of our 240 members, 13 currently have a BAME (black, Asian, and minority ethnic) background and I want to do better than that.”

She added: “At the moment we have no black Parole Board members and that’s of significant concern to me. But in terms of addressing this issue, we’re very keen to have as many people with a BAME background apply as possible.

“We have learnt lessons from our last recruitment round because we actually had the same objective and we weren’t successful so I am determined to learn lessons from last time around.”

Ms Corby said there were not enough applicants from BAME backgrounds and those who did apply did “very poorly” for “reasons we don’t entirely understand”.