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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent

UN torture expert urges UK government to review indefinite sentences

Barred cell windows of the residential wings at HMP The Mount in Hemel Hampstead
The Mount prison in Hemel Hampstead. More than 2,000 people remain in prison under IPP laws, which were scrapped in 2012. Photograph: Andrew Aitchison/Corbis/Getty

A UN torture expert has called on the UK government to urgently review all sentences imposed on prisoners held indefinitely under the “widely discredited” imprisonment for public protection (IPP) scheme.

Alice Jill Edwards, the special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, said the sentences, scrapped in 2012 but without retrospective effect, caused severe distress, depression and anxiety among both prisoners and their families.

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