Part 2: Release of terrorist offender Section 30: Restricted eligibility for early release of terrorist prisoners: Northern Ireland
Section 30 applies release restrictions to specified terrorist offenders in Northern Ireland, equivalent of those established in England and Wales and Scotland in the TORER Act 2020, so they serve two-thirds of their custodial term before being referred to the Parole Commissioners to consider release. These restrictions apply to all specified terrorist offenders who have not been released on licence, whether sentenced before or after the date of commencement.
	Subsection (1) inserts a new release provision into the 2008 Order, Article 20A, applying to all relevant terrorist offenders, standardising their first eligible release point to the two-thirds point of their sentence and referring all such offenders to the Parole Commissioners for consideration of whether they are safe to release from that point, prior to the end of their sentence (or custodial term).
	New Article 20A(1) provides for the revised release arrangements to apply to all fixed-term prisoners, including those sentenced before commencement.
	New Article 20A(2) specifies the terrorism and terrorism-connected offences to which the release arrangements of Article 20A will apply, as set out in the new Schedule 2A to the 2008 Order, including corresponding service offences.
	New Article 20A(3) to (7) provides for restrictions on early release for terrorist offenders serving determinate custodial sentences, extended sentences imposed before commencement of the provisions, or where the maximum penalty for the offence is not life imprisonment, and the new terrorism sentence. New paragraphs (3) and (4) provide that the Department of Justice must release the prisoner once the relevant part of the sentence is served (defined in paragraph (9) ) and the Parole Commissioners have directed release, only once they have determined that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that the prisoner should be confined.
	New Article 20A(5) provides for the terrorist offender’s case to be referred to the Parole Commissioners at the two-thirds point of the sentence and then every two years from the original referral unless otherwise specified by the Parole Commissioners (including after recall on licence).
	New Article 20A(6) clarifies that if a relevant terrorist offender has been referred to the Parole Commissioners and they did not direct the release of the prisoner, they must be referred again by the Department of Justice no later than two years from the date of the last reference.
	New Article 20A(7) provides that any time spent unlawfully at large will not be counted towards the relevant part of the sentence.
	New Article 20A(8) provides for automatic "first release" on licence at the end of the appropriate custodial term for those offenders serving the new serious terrorism sentence, the new terrorism sentence or an extended custodial sentence.
	New Article 20A(9) defines terms in Article 20A, including defining "relevant part of the sentence" as two-thirds of the custodial term or sentence.
	New Article 20A(10) provides for relevant extended sentence offenders who have already begun their parole review process before commencement of the Act, bringing them into the scope of the provisions for subsequent referrals to the Parole Commissioners.
	Section 30(2) makes it clear that those offenders who have already received a release direction from the Commissioners, who remain in prison, are unaffected by the provisions of the Act.