Part 7: Sentencing and release Chapter 1: Custodial sentences Section 145: Application of release provisions to repatriated prisoners
Section 145 amends paragraph 2 of the Schedule to the Repatriation of Prisoners Act 1984 ("the 1984 Act") (which modifies the operation of domestic release provisions in relation to prisoners repatriated from overseas jurisdictions to serve their sentences in England or Wales). The intention is that repatriated prisoners will be treated in the same manner as equivalent domestic offenders for the provisions relating to release on licence, where the application of those provisions depends on the nature or circumstances of the prisoner’s offence.
	The Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Act 2021 includes provision along similar lines specifically directed at terrorist offenders. This section replaces that provision with more general provision.
	Eligibility for polygraph testing as a condition of a release licence (under section 28 of the Offender Management Act 2007), restricted eligibility for release on licence for terrorist and terrorist-connected offenders (under section 247A of the Criminal Justice Act 2003), and later release points for offenders who commit certain violent or sexual offences as introduced by section 146 of this Act, all depend on the offence committed by the prisoner. In terrorism cases, polygraph testing and restricted eligibility for release may also depend on findings made by the Court when sentencing an offender (under section 69 of the Code). Polygraph testing also depends, in the case of offences involving domestic abuse, on the offence committed, and in some cases on the circumstances of the individual offence. The section will enable these provisions, and any similar provisions that may be enacted in the future, to operate in relation to corresponding cases involving overseas offenders repatriated to England and Wales and those sentenced in military court. Section 146 also creates a list of polygraph-eligible sexual offences which are applicable to offenders in England and Wales, and those who are transferred to England and Wales from Scotland or Northern Ireland.
	The main provisions are found in subsection (1)(b) and (c). Subsection (1)(b) inserts new sub-paragraphs (3ZA) to (3ZF) of paragraph 2 of the Schedule to the 1984 Act. Of those provisions:
Sub-paragraph (3ZA) provides the Secretary of State with the power to specify offence type, offending circumstances, and court findings in a repatriation warrant. If that is done, the offender is to be treated for the purposes of the release enactments in England and Wales in accordance with what is specified.
Sub-paragraph (3ZB) provides that an offence may be specified in the warrant only if the offence corresponds to that which the prisoner was convicted of and sentenced for overseas.
Sub-paragraphs (3ZC) and (3ZD) prevent circumstances of offending and court findings being specified in the warrant unless they correspond to matters which could have been found by a court in England and Wales, had the offender been tried and sentenced there. The Secretary of State will only be able to rely on findings made by the overseas court for that purpose.
Sub-paragraph (3ZE) provides that the provisions may not be operated so as to produce a retrospective effect beyond that which would be possible in a corresponding domestic case.
Sub-paragraph (3ZF) enables the Secretary of State to amend a warrant that has already been issued to specify the relevant matters, including warrants where the transfer of the offender has already taken place.
	Subsection (1)(c) brings section 28 of the Offender Management Act 2007 (inclusion of polygraph testing conditions in licences) within the provisions relating to release on licence to which paragraph 2 of the Schedule to the 1984 Act applies.
	Subsections (1)(a) and (3) repeal obsolete provisions of, or amends, the 1984 Act, to do with historic sentencing and release regimes.
	Subsection (2) makes saving provision in relation to the more limited provision (referred to above) made by the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Act 2021, which is expected to be in force for a period before its replacement by the provisions inserted by this section.