Andy Burnham has pulled the emergency brake on a scheme that would have freed thousands of prisoners early, after the widow of PC Andrew Harper branded the policy “deplorable”. The prime minister announced he was pausing the Sentencing Act’s early release programme, due to take effect in September, hours after Lissie Harper said politicians were “making decisions from behind a desk that will have real and lasting consequences” for victims’ families. Her husband’s killers – two teenagers sentenced to 13 years each – would have benefited from the scheme from June 2027.
Under the rules, less serious offenders would be let out after serving a third of their sentence rather than half, with the remainder monitored in the community. More serious offenders would go free at the halfway point instead of two-thirds. Around 700 prisoners were due for release in early September under the policy, which was designed to ease overcrowding.
“PM Andy Burnham pauses early prison release after victims' families outcry, including PC Andrew Harper's widow.”
But the backlash forced Burnham’s hand. “No prisoners will be let out under this policy until we have conducted an urgent review and done everything we can to minimise risk to the public,” he said. The new justice secretary, Alex Norris, who voted for the Sentencing Act under Sir Keir Starmer’s government, said the pause was about “giving victims and survivors certainty”. He added that a review would also examine how victims and their families are informed of release dates – after thousands of letters were sent to them warning of the September changes.
Yet the decision has created a fresh crisis. Sir David Gauke, the former Tory justice secretary who led a sentencing review, warned that prisons were “on course to run out of capacity in November” unless the early release scheme remained in place. The government has also asked prison staff to flag any “stability issues” inside jails that could arise from delayed releases, Sky News has learned. The pause leaves Burnham walking a tightrope between public safety and a system that is bursting at the seams.
Meanwhile, the prime minister continued his first week in office with a symbolic move north. Back in his home city, Burnham opened No 10 North, a new Manchester office he called the “nerve centre for a rewired Britain”, declaring “this might be the best day of my life”. He has already visited Somerset, Essex and Glasgow since Monday, and told his ministers they had joined a “cost-of-living government”. But with jails on the brink and victims still raw, the early release u-turn may prove his first true test of power.