HMP Wandsworth in London. The government has said adult male prisons are at 98% capacity. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images View image in fullscreen HMP Wandsworth in London. The government has said adult male prisons are at 98% capacity. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Prisons and probation Explainer What is Burnham doing to the early prison release scheme and why? Offences including manslaughter have been excluded from changes to sentencing rules amid an overcrowding crisis
Prefer the Guardian on Google Grooming gang perpetrators and killers, including those responsible for PC Andrew Harper’s death , will be blocked from early prison release under changes announced by Andy Burnham after a backlash over the scope of the scheme.
Here is a primer on how the crisis unfolded and what the upshot of Burnham’s decision could be.
From 1 October 2026, a change to sentencing rules means some adults serving a standard prison sentence in England and Wales will be released earlier than the date originally planned, the Institute for Government explains .
Prisoners convicted of less serious offences, who currently spend 40% or 50% of their sentence in prison, will leave prison after a third of their sentence. A second group, currently released after two-thirds of their sentence, will leave after half.
Leaving prison does not end the sentence. The person serves the rest of their sentence in the community on licence, under conditions set by probation, and can be returned to prison if those conditions are breached.
Murderers or people handed life or extended sentences have never been included in any proposals for reducing sentences and will stay locked up until they go before the Parole Board.
The Labour government says it inherited a prison system on the brink of collapse, with fewer than 100 spaces left in the summer of 2024. No 10 says a lack of investment in the prison estate, with just 500 net places added over a decade, has led to a situation where adult male prisons are now at 98% capacity. It says the steps are necessary while it builds capacity .
Very. The controversy stemmed from who was set to be released. Initially, all adults serving a standard determinate sentence were to be released early, including those sentenced for serious violent and sexual offences. In early August, the government said the scheme would not apply to sentences for rape and serious child sex offences.
There had been longstanding concern about those parts of the proposals, but the backlash intensified in late July and early August when it emerged that the killers of a police officer, PC Andrew Harper, who were sentenced for manslaughter, would be eligible for early release under the proposal.
The issue presented the first real headache for Burnham, who was appointed as prime minister on 20 July.
On Sunday, two days before parliament’s return from recess, No 10 announced that sentences for unlawful killing would be blocked from the early release scheme. This means Harper’s killers, among many others, will not be eligible for early release.
Historical grooming offences, any form of manslaughter, causing death by dangerous driving and causing or allowing the death of a child will also be barred from the changes to the prison sentences.
Burnham also announced that he would end imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences during this parliament, due to end in 2029. The IPP was introduced in 2005 and gave offenders a minimum jail tariff but no maxim…