The Parole Board published a new video and a 25-page leaflet for victims and survivors of crime on 29 June 2026, presenting both as tools to explain the parole process more clearly. The GOV.UK announcement says the material covers how to submit a Victim Personal Statement, the main stages of a parole review and how to observe an oral hearing. (gov.uk) In the same announcement, Parole Board chief executive Cecilia French said the resources had been developed with input from victims, victims’ rights groups and the London Victims’ Commissioner, and framed the release as part of the Board’s wider effort to make its work easier to understand. (gov.uk)
The leaflet goes further than the short news release and sets out the main entitlements available to victims in parole cases. According to the document, victims may submit a Victim Personal Statement, apply to read it at an oral hearing or have it read on their behalf, apply to observe an oral hearing, request licence conditions, request a summary of the parole decision and apply for a hearing to be held in public. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) That matters because some of the most consequential requests are not about release itself, but about the terms attached to it. Ministry of Justice guidance says victims can ask for licence conditions that relate to them, including measures such as a no-contact requirement or an exclusion zone, through their Victim Liaison Officer. (gov.uk)
Support for victims sits partly outside the Parole Board itself. The Ministry of Justice guide says that if a person is the victim of a serious or violent sexual offence and the offender received a custodial sentence of 12 months or more, that victim can opt into the Victim Contact Scheme, under which a Victim Liaison Officer keeps in contact, answers questions and explains how the process works. (gov.uk) The 2026 leaflet makes clear that the Victim Contact Scheme is run by the Probation Service and is separate from the Parole Board. Where a victim is eligible and wants to engage with a parole review, the Victim Liaison Officer is the main route for updates, advice and applications; where a person is not eligible or not signed up, the leaflet says they can still contact the Parole Board directly. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
The new material also does some basic institutional work that is often missing from public discussion of parole. It explains that panels of between one and four trained members review the case, and that the Parole Board is an independent body sitting as a court, separate from the Government, the Ministry of Justice and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) On decision-making, the leaflet restates the public protection test that governs release. A panel may only direct release if continued confinement is no longer necessary for the protection of the public, and it reaches that judgement by examining the parole dossier, sentencing material, offending history and evidence of behaviour and progress in custody. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
Observation rights are one of the clearest parts of the new guidance. The Parole Board says victims who observe an oral hearing will usually do so by live link and can see most of the proceedings, but not every part of them: sections dealing with matters such as a proposed release address, confidential information about another person or private medical evidence may be heard in closed session. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) The same pages also set out the conditions attached to observation. Observers must not record or share information, will be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement, and may need advance permission if they want to take notes. Victims can ask for a supporter to accompany them, and the leaflet says most applications to observe are likely to be accepted unless exceptional reasons make that impossible. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
The timing is significant because this publication follows an earlier operational change. Victim observation of private oral hearings was rolled out nationally across England and Wales on 1 April 2025 after a pilot in two probation regions, and the Parole Board is now backing that change with a fuller set of public-facing materials for victims and survivors. (gov.uk) For victims, the value of the new video and leaflet is practical rather than symbolic: they set out, in one place, how to take part in a review and what can be asked of the system. For probation staff, victim support services and legal practitioners, the documents provide a single reference point for explaining statements, licence conditions, observation, public hearing applications, decision summaries and the existing routes for challenging a decision. (gov.uk)