This was a new one for me. Probably because it is Scotland only, which explains why we never hear about them.

It appears to be a kind of IPP and SHPO combination, but I can't work out why they don't just use SHPOs instead. It might be because, unlike an SHPO, the OLR has no possibility of being discharged. It is like an indefinite SHPO, except it cannot be appealed after 15 years, like an SHPO can.

But in that case,why has it not fallen foul of the ECHR? The IPP also ran into trouble because of human rights concerns and was scrapped but the OLR still exists.

Edit. according to an FOI request, the supervision element of an OLR can be terminated, seemingly at any point, by the Parole Board. But that actually makes it less restrictive than either a life licence (which can be terminated only after a minimum of 10 years), or an indefinite SHPO, which has a minimum termination of 15 years.

So if the OLR really were intended as a "sentence of last resort", for the most dangerous offenders, why make it shorter than an SHPO?