PM confirms changes to early release

The Government’s change of direction on the Sentencing Act is a welcome move. Following a campaign backed by well over one million people across the country I am pleased that changes will be made to the flawed Sentencing Act.

This success is rather bittersweet however. It took the tragic case of the killing of PC Andrew Harper to out the spotlight on the Government’s plans for the early release of thousands of criminals.

We all accept that there is a big challenge in managing our prison population, but the Sentencing Act was intended to allow the release of killers, rapists and child sex offenders. This change in position is welcome, but I await the details when they are presented to Parliament, hopefully later this week.

There remain fundamental problems with the Sentencing Act especially with regards to domestic abuse perpetrators and the lack of a risk assessment in the early release programme. I will continue to work with the Government and with Thames Valley Police to try to mitigate the problems caused by this early release scheme.