Courts would be slow to interfere with decisions regarding reward (by way of early release) for meritorious conduct by prisoners because applicants in such cases were seeking concessions and the policy document under which the scheme had been set up was careful not to confer any substantive rights on prisoners. Nor was there a legitimate expectation of reward since the policy made it clear that consideration "might" be given to grant the reward.

QBD (David Pannick QC)

05/09/2000