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(Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1997 on the 4 th March of that year. Thus the provision of a
presumption of a complete discharge of the sentence on the release of the prisoner was
abolished. But the repeal of the section also removed the statutory basis for the provision
of remission of sentences for good behaviour. From the 4 th March 1997 onwards, the
location of an entitlement to remission was to be found only in a statutory instrument
namely the Rules for the Government of Prisons 1947 which was stated to continue in
force and have the same effect as it made under Section 19(8) of the Criminal Justice
(Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1997. Under Section 19(1) the Minister for Justice was
empowered to make prison rules and under Section 19(3)(f) the power to make rules for
the remission of sentence was specifically mentioned. The 1947 rules continued in force
until these were also repealed by Section 120(1) of the Prison Rules 2007 on the 1 st
October 2007 (S.I. 252 of 2007). Section 19 of the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous
Provisions) Act 1997 was repealed bySection 42 and replaced bySection 35 of the Prisons
Act 2007 which makes general provision for the Minister for Justice to make rules for the
regulation and good government of prisons and specifically makes reference to the power
to make rules for the remission of a portion of a prisoner’s sentence (Section 35(2)(f)).
Rule 59 of the Prison Rules 2007 provides;
Rule 59.(1) a prisoner who has been sentencedto
(a) a term of imprisonment exceeding1 month, or
(b) terms of imprisonment to be served consecutively the aggregate of
which exceeds 1 month,
shall be eligible by good conduct, to earn a remission of sentence not exceeding
one quarter of such termor aggregate.
(2) The Minister maygrant such greater remission of sentence greater than
one quarter but not exceeding one third thereof where a prisoner has
shown further good conduct by engaging in authorised structured activity
and the Minister is satisfied that, as a result, the prisoner is less likely to re-
offendandwill be better able to reintegrate into the community.
The prisoner is entitled to be informed upon reception into prison of his/her earliest date
of release (Rule 15 Prison Rules 2007) which date must include an indication of time to be
allowedfor remission for goodbehaviour.
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