The Island's parole board is working furiously to clear up a backlog following delays which led to a number of prisoners spending extra time behind bars.

Parliament last year passed the Parole Board Act, which mandated that starting October 1, 2001 the parole board would take over the function of hearing parole applications from the Treatment of Offenders Board.

But until last month, the parole board had not started hearing parole cases, because of delays in training its members.

Martin Law, the co-ordinator of security services at the Labour and Home Affairs department, told The Royal Gazette yesterday that the board is now fully operational.

"I can tell you that they have met. In fact they met for a whole solid week in March and they are now meeting one day a week," Mr. Law said.

"They're meeting this frequently with a view to clearing up the backlog. It's now ongoing and it's been quite a substantive effort over the past five or six weeks."

He could not immediately say how many prisoners had been affected by the delays.