Overview
- The Prime Minister announced on Monday that offenders convicted of rape, serious child sexual offences and grooming will be excluded from the Sentencing Act changes that shorten automatic release points.
- Wider implementation of the early‑release reforms has been pushed back from September to October to allow time to put new supervision measures and victim‑contact systems in place.
- About 6,000 prisoners were due to be released in the first tranche under the changes that move some release points from two‑thirds to halfway or to one‑third of sentences.
- The government said released prisoners will face tougher community controls such as presumptive electronic tagging, GPS monitoring, exclusion zones, longer licence supervision and random testing, alongside a national victims’ helpline backed by £10m.
- Police and probation leaders warn the policy will shift offender management into communities, raise costs into the hundreds of millions and force cuts or reprioritisation of neighbourhood policing, while victims including PC Andrew Harper’s widow have strongly protested and critics cite earlier rounds that freed tens of thousands and coincided with rising reoffending.