A further 650 prisoners are due to leave jails across England and Wales under Labour’s early release scheme, in the second tranche of a programme designed to ease overcrowding.
The group includes inmates serving sentences of up to two and a half years for offences including violence and domestic abuse. They will become eligible for release after serving one-third of their sentence, rather than half.
The scheme began on October 1, when about 700 prisoners serving terms of less than 19 months were released. Its scope is being expanded each month, with the tenth and final stage due in early June for prisoners sentenced to 12 years or more.
Officials expect the programme to free up to 50,000 prisoners a year. However, the Ministry of Justice will not publish a separate figure for the number released under the scheme.
Instead, the prisoners benefiting from the sentence reductions will be included in existing statistics, meaning the scale of the programme will not be separately identifiable.
Early release figures will not be published separately
The decision has prompted accusations from the Conservatives that the Government is withholding information about the impact of the policy.
Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, said: “This looks like a cover-up by Labour to hide the true scale of their latest disastrous early release scheme.”
“They must come clean and explain why they refuse to publish this data,” he added.
Mr Timothy also alleged that dangerous offenders were being released early, with some going on to commit further offences. He said the Conservatives had a fully costed plan to build 50,000 additional prison places, end early release and keep violent and serious repeat offenders behind bars.
The Government has not disclosed how many prisoners are expected to be released early in total. Labour’s previous scheme, introduced in September 2024, resulted in between 3,000 and 4,000 early releases each month and has so far freed more than 70,000 offenders.
The new programme is broader, with some serious violent offenders eligible for the first time. Prisoners serving life sentences, including those convicted of murder, and those serving extended sentences are excluded, along with certain other violent and sexual offenders.
Police warnings over reoffending
There are no overall figures showing how many people released under the scheme have gone on to commit further offences. But a senior Metropolitan Police officer recently warned that one offender had carried out a series of crimes with “astonishing” speed after leaving prison.
Michael Bogle, 38, was released from HMP Wandsworth on the first day of the programme. The prolific offender later admitted 11 shoplifting offences and was sent back to prison.
Greater Manchester Police also said eight men had been arrested within days of being released early for alleged offences including robbery, domestic violence and drug-related crimes.
The changes mean prisoners who would previously have served 40 or 50 per cent of their court-imposed sentence can now be released after serving 33 per cent. As the scheme expands, some offenders convicted of violent or sexual offences who would previously have been released after two-thirds of their sentence will instead become eligible at the halfway point.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has pledged to build 50,000 new prison places if her party wins the next general election, increasing the size of the prison estate by more than half.
An MoJ spokesman said the Government had inherited a prison system “on the brink of collapse” and that failing to act would have risked forcing police to halt arrests.
“Our changes are part of a long-term overhaul of sentencing, ending the crisis in our prisons and keeping dangerous offenders behind bars,” the spokesman said. “The Sentencing Act follows an independent review and was fully scrutinised by Parliament.”
