The whole life order or whole life tariff is a mechanism whereby a prisoner is sentenced to remain in prison until his or her death. It came into force in 1983 when the Home Secretary began to set minimum terms that convicted killers had to serve before being considered for release on life licence. The intention of a whole life tariff was for a prisoner to be kept in prison until they died, unless there were exceptional circumstances for a prisoner to go free such as great age or ill health. A whole life tariff could also be quashed on appeal by the High Court. Trial judges were entitled to recommend that a life sentence prisoner's tariff would mean life, though in many cases the trial judge had recommended that an offender could be considered for parole after a number of years, only for the Home Secretary to later impose a whole life tariff.
The question of whether a Home Secretary should have the power to impose whole life tariffs is a controversial one since a decision to impose such a sanction (or not) can carry political consequences for the Home Secretary and, by extension, the government he serves. In 2002, a successful legal challenge by convicted double murderer Anthony Anderson saw the Home Secretary stripped of the final say on how long a life sentence prisoner must serve before parole can be considered - as well as the right to decide that certain prisoners should never be released.
The law was subsequently changed so that the trial judge was obliged to recommend a minimum number of years (or recommend that life should mean life) in the case of anyone being sentenced to life imprisonment, and that the final say rested with the High Court rather than the Home Secretary.
Only the Home Secretary can grant a release to a prisoner sentenced to a whole life tariff or whole life order, on compassionate grounds due to great age or infirmity. Only four prisoners known or believed to have been issued with a whole life tariff have been released on compassionate grounds. Three of them were IRA members who were freed under the Good Friday Agreement in 1999. The other was gang member Reggie Kray (who was believed to have been issued with a whole life tariff but his status was never confirmed by the Home Office), freed from his life sentence in 2000 after serving 32 years, due to terminal cancer. He died within weeks of release.
Since whole life tariffs were introduced, the law has stated that they cannot be issued to anyone who was under the age of 21 at the time of their crime.
Around 60 prisoners have been issued with whole life tariffs or orders since the mechanism was first introduced in 1983, although some of them were convicted of their crimes before that date and some of the prisoners known to have been issued with the whole life tariff have since died in prison.
Read more about this topic: Life Imprisonment In England And Wales
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