If the medical parole policy was reviewed it would have no bearing on prisoners who had been granted parole prior to its enactment, chair of the national council on correctional services, judge Siraj Desai said in Pretoria on Tuesday.

"These rules do not envisage being retrospective in nature," Desai said in response to media questions relating to how a new policy would impact on convicted fraudster's Schabir Shaik's medical parole.

He said that recommendations of the new policy were that medical parole could be revoked if a person recovered from an illness.

"If a person is released on medical parole, in terms of these proposals he can he be reconsidered if he gets better. His parole could be reviewed."

In opening remarks earlier, Correctional Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said that research indicated that "well over 60%" of offenders granted parole on medical grounds have gone on to make a full recovery, leading productive lives.

"The law is silent as to whether such persons should finish their sentences in incarceration or at correctional centres," she said.