Wayne Truter & Anor v Ministry of Justice
| Court | Wayne Truter & Anor v Ministry of Justice |
| Judge | Mr Justice Linden |
| Neutral Citation | [2024] EWHC 1668 (KB) |
| Date | 01 July 2024 |
| Year | 2024 |
| Counsel | Christopher Knight |
Neutral Citation Number: [2024] EWHC 1668 (KB)
Case Nos: KB-2023-BHM-000160 & 000235
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
KING’S BENCH DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Date: Monday 1 st
July
Before :
THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE LINDEN
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Between :
(1) WAYNE TRUTER
(2) ISAAC AMPONSAH
Claimants
- and -
MINISTRY OF JUSTICE
Defendant
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Claimants represented themselves
Christopher Knight (instructed by Government Legal Department) for the Defendant
Hearing dates: 12 and 13 June 2024
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
High Court Judgment:
No permission is granted to copy or use in court
Amponsah v Justice
Mr Justice Linden:
Introduction
1. These are two of five claims which were issued between mid and late 2023 in the
Birmingham District Registry by serving prisoners at HMP Littlehey. The claims raise
an issue as to the reliance by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (“HMPPS”),
in the OASys Sexual Reoffending Predictor (“OSP”), on convictions which are
“spent” for the purposes of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. The OSP, as the
name suggests, is an actuarial risk assessment tool which is designed to assist HMPPS
in determining the likely risk of further sexual offending by adult male prisoners who
have been convicted of sexual or sexually motivated offences. An offender’s OSP risk
level is therefore part of the information which will affect, amongst other things,
decisions about their management within the prison system and about release and
recall to prison.
2. On 12 January 2024, in the context of an application by the Defendant to strike out
the claims, District Judge Rich ordered that there be a preliminary issue of law in Mr
Amponsah’s case. That issue is fundamentally whether it is contrary to section 4(2) of
the 1974 Act for an offender’s OSP score to take into account spent convictions, but it
was framed by reference to the guidance given by the Defendant to HMPPS staff as to
how the OSP should be operated, and therefore as follows:
“Whether it is lawful for the Defendant Ministry of Justice’s policy framework
document, ‘OASys Sexual reoffending Predictor (OSP) Guidance for Practitioners,
Version 3.0, July 2023’, to provide at section 4, p.8 thereof, that ‘it is irrelevant
whether the conviction is considered spent under the Rehabilitation of
Offenders Act 1974’?”
3. Version 3.0 of the Guidance has since been updated, so that the current version is
version 4.0, dated March 2024. But the position in relation to spent convictions
remains as stated in version 3.0.
4. The four other claims were stayed. However, on 4 June 2024 I granted Mr Truter’s
application to lift the stay on his claim. My reasons for doing so were essentially that
he was the driving force behind the claims and he had been intended by the other
Claimants to be the lead Claimant. I was also under the impression that Mr Amponsah
had not attended the hearing on 4 June, which had been conducted by CVP with me in
open court, and I was concerned that he may not attend the hearing of the preliminary
issue given that he had been released from custody (in fact, he had been linked into
the hearing by CVP but this was not drawn to my attention). Mr Truter and Mr St
Omer, who is the claimant in case number KB-2023-BHM-000292 and had also
applied for the stay to be lifted in his case, said that a resolution of their claims was
urgent from their point of view and I did not want to run the risk of the hearing of the
preliminary issue being ineffective. I also directed that the other Claimants should be
produced so that they could attend the hearing by CVP if they wished to.
5. In the event all five Claimants attended the hearing of the preliminary issues by CVP,
as did Mr Knight for the Defendant, pursuant to permission which had been given
before I became involved in the proceedings. I sat in open court at Birmingham. Mr
Page 2
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting