ABSTRACT
In this chapter we review how Panels have worked in practice. Doubtless there was much activity in the Parole Board as they worked to get the new Panels up and running by October 1992. These preparations included visits to Mental Health Review Tribunals as a precursor to the drafting of the Parole Board Rules 1992. In 1999, the Home Office commissioned the first observational study of the nature and quality of decision-making at Discretionary Lifer Panels, 1 and this research is the source of much of the information contained in this chapter.
