UK Prisons: "I made my mistakes" says David Blunkett as he urges ministers to reform his IPP sentences

Lord David Blunkett brought in Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences (IPPs) during his time as Home Secretary under Tony Blair between 2001 and 2004 - and the former Sheffield Brightside MP has said the introduction is the “biggest regret” of his political career and now calls for reforms to free up crucial prison spaces.

“I made my mistakes,” the 77-year-old life peer told The Star’s Sheffield Scoop podcast.

“The judges who are the ones who sentenced and had this on the menu, they made their mistakes and those who advised us, including psychologists, made a mistake about what the likely impact is.”

IPPs were designed for dangerous prisoners whose crimes did not qualify for life sentences.

After serving a minimum tarif behind bars, determinded at their sentencing hearings, the idea was to retain offenders behind bars indefinitely until they could prove that they were longer a threat to the public.

It often led to inmates spending years locked up after their minimum tarif.

Prisoners on IPPs could also be recalled to prison for years after their release.

They were abolished in 2012 for new prisoners but not for those already serving them.

“We have got 1,200 still in prison even though legislation was changed 12 years ago,” Lord Blunkett said.

IPPs were deemed unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights in 2012, but not retrospectively, which left 6,000 offenders languishing in UK prisons at the time.

UK prisons are facing an overcrowding crisis as available spaces are running out. It prompted immediate action from the Labour government upon taking power in July, with more than 1,000 offenders released after completing 40 per cent of their sentence - rather than the usual 50 per cent - as part of an attempt to relieve pressure on the justice system and free up spaces.

Lord Blunkett said: “I have been talking with the new prisons and probation minister James Timpson already and I’m seeing the Justice Secretary in the middle of October and they are clear that there will be a residual number between 400-500 who would have been sentence to life had they not been sentenced to IPP.

“It’s going to be very difficult dealing with them, but the other 700 or so we need to get out of prison and into the community as quickly as we can and above all we have got to avoid recall... We are all agreed we have got to do something about it.”

During the interview, Lord Blunkett outlined how he would choose to address the prisons crisis were he still leading the Home Office.

He said: “Instead of building even more large prisons, which are difficult to get planning consent for, difficult to go through the building processes and difficult to recruit for once you have built them... Why not build a large number of small remand centres right across Britain?

“There’d be much less objects from the locality because these people have not been found guilty, they are not sentenced.”

Remand centres would hypothetically free up prison spaces occupied by people currently being kept on remand ahead of court appearances, but have not been found guilty of any crimes.

“I am hoping to persuade ministers to do that because there is money in the forward budget and I don’t think there’s chance of Rachel Reeves cutting that,” Lord Blunkett added. “The money is there so why not use it more smartly.”

The Sheffield-born politician added he would also address prison recall policies and would “take a very strong look at the IPP and say only when someone has really committed another offence, as opposed to breaching their licence, should they be pulled back in [to prison]”.

Lord Blunkett praised the new Labour government for getting off to a “great start” since taking power in July 2024, pointing to the handling of the riots in August as a positive example.