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 following a backlash over the scope of the scheme.
Some offenders serving indefinite jail sentences, which were abolished in 2012, will also be freed through legislation to be brought forward by the end of this Parliament, the Prime Minister pledged.
Some 5,000 prisoners had been due to be released early from September under plans to ease jail overcrowding, down from 6,000 after ministers intervened to exempt rapists and “serious” child sex offenders.
Mr Burnham initially resisted calls to limit the scheme further after it emerged that Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, who were convicted of Pc Harper’s manslaughter in 2020, would be eligible from next year.
But under fresh changes announced on Sunday, anyone convicted of unlawful killing, including all forms of manslaughter and death by dangerous driving, will be excluded.
Grooming gang perpetrators will also be blocked from early release after concerns were raised about a potential loophole in the system.
Indecent assault, an offence for which some child sex offenders were prosecuted before changes to sexual abuse laws in 2003, will be added to the list of exemptions to the scheme.
Mr Burnham said “hundreds” of extra people will remain in prison following the changes, which will be laid in Parliament through secondary legislation at the beginning of next week.
The Prime Minister said extra space in prisons would be created by deporting foreign prisoners and releasing inmates who are serving indefinite sentences under imprisonment for public protection sentences (IPPs), which were given to offenders considered a significant risk to the public between 2005 and 2012.
But the changes to IPPs could take years to implement and will not be part of the initial measures to ease overcrowding.
The Prime Minister said releasing some offenders on these sentences would require a “very careful” approach because some will still pose a risk of harm.
A cross-party group will be set up to look at how to correct the “injustice” of the IPP system, which has seen many offenders convicted when they were young remain in jail for crimes that are “not at the same level of seriousness” as some of those who were previously eligible for early release, he said.
“It does need to be done in a very careful way with regard to public safety, national security and all of those issues,” Mr Burnham said.
The law was changed to stop courts handing out IPP sentences in 2012 after warnings that they were being applied too widely, but the abolition was not retrospective, meaning many prisoners already serving such sentences are still behind bars.
Former Tory justice secretary Alex Chalk said the plans to release IPP prisoners would fail and jails would get fuller.
“Guess what? They will reoffend and they will come straight back in through the doors. And so I think that he’s (Mr Burnham’s) going to face that fundamental problem,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House.
Ministry of Justice figures show some 856 IPP prisoners remained unreleased as of June 30 this year. A further 1,415 offenders were recalled after being handed IPP sentences, according to the data.
The Prime Minister ordered a review of the changes to the Sentencing Act, which is being undertaken by Justice Secretary Alex Norris and is set to be published when Parliament returns from summer recess.
That followed widespread condemnation of the scheme when it emerged Bowers and Cole could be released halfway through their 13-year sentences.
They were passengers in the car that dragged Pc Harper down a country road after he got caught in a strap attached to the vehicle as they fled the scene of a quad bike theft in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in 2019.
Pc Harper’s mother said she is “grateful” her son’s killers will not be released early, but they “are only back at where we were to start with”.
“It’s a really mixed bag of emotions, though, because on the one hand we are glad, but we’ve been brought through the mill, and we are only back at where we were to start with. You know, go back a few months, this is where we were – so we’re not making any headway or anything. We are just literally fighting to get back to where we were,” Debbie Adlam told BBC Breakfast.
“So, I am glad and I’m really grateful that, you know, this has been the outcome for us. I worry immensely for people that it doesn’t happen for, you know, and I think, realistically, the overall system has left some huge gaps still.
“I just hope that what Andy Burnham says there, that they will be going into a further overhaul over the next few years – it really needs to happen for our sakes.”
The chairwoman of the Police Federation for Pc Harper’s former force, Thames Valley, also welcomed the change.
Aileen O’Connor, who started a petition that attracted more than one million signatures to keep Bowers and Cole behind bars, said: “We are pleased that the Government – despite what was, frankly, initial reluctance – has eventually listened, seen sense and made the right decision to keep these low-lifes behind bars.
“They had no option. The weight of public and policing opinion against such plans was overwhelming.
“The fact that more than one million people signed our petition over this was a historic public backing for police officers.
“The fact 50 chief constables across the UK wrote an open letter calling for the Government to reconsider was unprecedented.
“The right and proper decision has been made.”
The Tories, under whom thousands of prisoners were released early as part of efforts to tackle jail overcrowding, criticised the use of secondary legislation that will not require a Commons vote.
Shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy said: “This week, under the law Labour passed prisons will start letting thousands of serious offenders out early.
“Rather than bring forward a proper law, Labour have found a way to change the rules by the back door, with no amendments, no real debate and no guarantee it can survive legal challenge. For the past year, we have been telling Labour the most dangerous offenders had to be excluded. At every turn they said it could not be done, and every U-turn since has proved otherwise.
“The Government must delay the scheme, bring forward emergency primary legislation and exclude the worst offenders properly. Labour have got this wrong at every stage and they have one chance left to get it right.”
