LANDMARK new proposals to end the “cruel experiment” of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) jail terms were due to be launched at the House of Lords today.

An expert panel convened by the Howard League for Penal Reform urged the government to take “long overdue” action to given prisoners left trapped in jail for up to 20 years for minor offences a release date.

IPP sentences were abolished in 2012, but not retrospectively, meaning thousands who were serving them at the time remain in prison today. 

Labour’s prisons minister James Timpson has repeatedly said that the government will not resentence IPP prisoners because it would result in serious offenders being released automatically without licensed supervision.

But panel chair Lord John Thomas, once Britain’s most senior judge, said that the government’s IPP Action Plan “imposes too great a burden on the prison service.  

“Our key recommendation — of changing the Parole Board test — provides a solution to the previously intractable problem of how to release safely those who have so far not been released.”

The panel proposed that every IPP prisoner is given a release date at their next review by the Parole Board within a two-year window, with plans to prepare them to be safely freed.

They also called for decisions to recall IPP prisoners to be only made as a last resort and that mental health aftercare support is provided for every released IPP prisoner.

The Ministry of Justice said: “It is right that IPP sentences were abolished, and we will carefully consider the recommendations in this report.

“We are determined to make progress towards safe and sustainable releases for those in prison, but not in any way that undermines public protection.”