Prisoners can be repatriated to and from any other country where there is an international arrangement in place to do so. The Act makes provision for offenders repatriated to England and Wales pursuant to a warrant issued under Section 1 of the Repatriation of Prisoners Act 1984 (the 1984 Act), who have received a fixed term sentence for murder, to be released automatically at the two thirds point of their sentence. They will remain on licence until the end of their sentence. When they are on licence, they are liable to recall if they breach any of their licence conditions. Repatriated offenders serving fixed term sentences for murder will not be eligible for fixed term recall, only a standard recall where they must be released by the Parole Board or Secretary of State in accordance with the statutory release test.
	In the UK, murder carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment under section 1(1) of the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965. This means that all offenders convicted of murder in the UK can only be released when the Parole Board is satisfied that the statutory release test is met and are released on a life licence. There are some jurisdictions who may not impose a life sentence for the offence of murder, and instead impose a fixed-term sentence, e.g. twenty years. Whilst the enforcement provisions of the State to which the prisoner is transferred apply, even if they are different from those in the sentencing State, the sentence cannot be aggravated on transfer so a fixed term sentence cannot be changed to a life sentence.
	This Act brings repatriated offenders serving a fixed term sentence for murder into line with the calculation of the minimum term for those offenders who receive a discretionary life sentence, which is based on two thirds of a determinate sentence. This provision does not apply to any repatriated offenders serving a life sentence for murder where an indeterminate sentence has been imposed and who are subject to the release and recall arrangements set out in Part 2 of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997.
Policy background Part 2: Management of offenders after sentencing Repatriated prisoners