• Published

Prime Minister Andy Burnham is pausing an early release scheme for some prisoners in England and Wales.

His decision comes after the widow of PC Andrew Harper described the possibility of his killers being freed early as "deplorable".

Under the new Sentencing Act set to come into force in September, some 6,000 criminals were due to be released at varying stages - the aim being to ease overcrowding.

The prime minister has said that "no prisoners will be let out under this policy until we have conducted an urgent review and done everything we can to minimise risk to the public." His move now raises questions about how the scheme might operate.

How would the early release scheme have worked?

Earlier this year Parliament voted through the Sentencing Act 2026 to radically reform the rules governing the sentencing and management of prisoners.

This was part of the Starmer government's plan to tackle an unprecedented crisis of overcrowded jails.

One part of the plan means that most jailed offenders on fixed terms will leave jail after serving a third of their term behind bars, rather than at the halfway point.

They will be monitored in the community and allowed to stay out if they can show they are on the road to rehabilitation.

The plan was that from 2 September, prisoners would be released at this earlier point - starting with those serving up to 19 months.

Could the scheme be scrapped?

That would need a vote in Parliament - and Parliament is on holiday for the summer. In theory the PM could delay its implementation - but the problem then is that this would mean the prison population would begin to head towards crisis point as cells fill up again.

How many offenders would benefit?

We expect up to 6,000 offenders to benefit from the scheme as it comes into force in September and in practice governors are under a presumption to release inmates.

Parliamentary reports have repeatedly warned that the probation services are not in a fit state - so there is genuine concern that officers working flat out to manage huge numbers of offenders already in the community could find their workload gets even worse.

What happened to PC Andrew Harper?

In 2019 the 28-year-old officer was killed when he was dragged down a road in Berkshire after getting caught in a strap attached to the back of a car that teenage burglary suspects were using to flee the scene.

Henry Long, 18 at the time, was the driver and the jury did not convict him of murder because it was not sure he knew he was dragging the officer along as he drove off.

But he, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, both 17 at the time, were all convicted of manslaughter - which means causing an unlawful death, without necessarily intending to do so.

They were all jailed in 2020: Long for 16 years and Bowers and Cole for 13 years.

When did the men expect to be freed?

Long was jailed for 16 years. It would have been 24 had he not admitted manslaughter.

The sentencing judge said he would serve 10 years and eight months of that in a cell before he could be released on licence.

Bowers and Cole were told that they would serve two thirds of their 13 years in custody and the rest on licence in the community.

Release on licence is baked into sentencing laws in the UK and comparable countries. It means an offender leaves prison but is not free of their sentence - they are subject to restrictions and conditions on their life which can include electronic tag monitoring of their movements and curfews.

If an offender breaks the conditions, they can be sent back behind bars.

So would PC Harper's killers benefit and when?

Bowers and Cole were in a category of criminals who were told by their trial judge they would spend two-thirds of their sentence in jail.

But that was changed under the new rules which meant they could leave at the halfway point of their term.

Until the prime minister suspended the scheme's phased timetable, that would have been June of next year. Now it's not clear if and when they will benefit.

Is Henry Long, the driver, eligible?

No. His more severe sentence is unaffected by the new rules, whatever new timetable the PM decides on. He would still have at least another four years of prison walls to look at.

How bad was the prison crisis that triggered reforms?

Prisons in England and Wales were going to run out of available beds in cells in the summer of 2024 - and whoever won that year's general election would have had to order emergency releases to free up cells.

Had the releases the Starmer government ordered not taken place, the courts would have had to stop sentencing newly-convicted offenders - and that in turn may have meant the police would have had to slow down charging suspects they knew should be behind bars while they wait for trial.

The prison population has now dropped significantly from those record highs - there is breathing space in the system. But it could run out very quickly, before the new prison building plan bears fruit, if this controversial early prison release scheme were scrapped.