Dangerous criminals could still be freed under the prime minister’s early release scheme, shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy has told the BBC.
“In order to prevent one group of dangerous criminals being released early, he’s looking at releasing a different group of dangerous prisoners”, Timothy said.
Timothy’s comments followed Andy Burnham’s announcement that the early prisoner release scheme would be further narrowed to exclude anyone convicted of manslaughter, following a campaign from the family of PC Andrew Harper to block the release of two men convicted of his manslaughter in 2019.
Burnham said extra prison space would be found in part by releasing some inmates serving indefinite sentences, known as IPPs.
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Published1 day agoImprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences were given to offenders between 2005 and 2012 who were deemed to pose a significant risk of causing serious harm to the public.
Once a minimum term has been served, the prisoner can be released only once the Parole Board is satisfied they no longer need to be confined for public safety, meaning many are being held indefinitely.
There were 2,271 people serving these sentences, according to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data up to June of this year.
Of those, 856 have never been released because the Parole Board thought it was not safe to do so. Ending indefinite sentences will also require new legislation, meaning it could be years before space is freed up.
“By definition, the people who are still in prison on those sentences are dangerous, because they’ve all been considered by independent expert assessors who have concluded that they are not safe to release and they would be a danger to the public,” Timothy told the BBC.
Timothy conceded that the prime minister was grappling with an overcrowding problem not of his making: “I’m fully open about the fact that one of the failures of the last Conservative government was that not enough prison places were built”.
“The government’s number one priority is to keep the public safe and in order to do that we need a functioning criminal justice system”, Alex Davies Jones, Minister for Victims, Violence Against Women and Girls & International Justice, told the BBC’s Today programme.
The scheme is to ensure “there is always a prison space available for someone who needs it”, she said.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast she said “release doesn’t mean freedom” and there will be a presumption that those released will be on a GPS tag.
On 3 August, the prison population in England and Wales was 86,495, around 97% of useable capacity.
This early release scheme was introduced under the Sentencing Act 2026. It was designed to address the overcrowding crisis in prisons in England and Wales – which are more than 97% full – by releasing large numbers of inmates earlier than had been previously planned.
The early release scheme is scheduled to start on 1 October.
As well as manslaughter, those sentenced for rape, serious child sex and grooming offences are also not be eligible for early release.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Sunday, Burnham acknowledged that his decision to narrow the early release scheme’s scope and keep PC Harper’s killers in prison would mean that “hundreds” more people would remain behind bars and additional space would need to be found.
But the prime minister said he had applied “common sense” on the treatment of IPPs, which he had “long-standing concerns” about.
“I was faced with a situation where people on those sentences who have more than served their time, not being released when others who’ve committed very serious crimes being released early,” he said.
On Tuesday, Justice Secretary Alex Norris is expected update Parliament with further details on the changes to the early release scheme, including how many people will be affected.
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