Andy Burnham’s government 'TRIES' is tightening an early-release scheme

Andy Burnham’s government is tightening an early-release scheme born of a severe prison overcrowding crisis, but campaigners say thousands of domestic abusers will still leave jail sooner than planned. 

The Sentencing Act 2026 changes automatic release points for most prisoners serving standard determinate sentences in England and Wales. Lower-level offenders who previously served 40% or 50% of their term in custody can now be released after one-third. More serious offenders who previously served two-thirds can be released after half, provided they have not committed serious breaches in prison. The rest of the sentence is served on licence in the community with conditions. Life sentences and extended determinate sentences for the most dangerous offenders remain unaffected and stay subject to the Parole Board.

The changes were designed to prevent the prison system from running out of space. Adult male prisons have been operating at around 98% capacity. The government inherited a situation in which spare places were extremely tight after years of limited building and rising demand. Officials have repeatedly warned that without earlier releases, police could struggle to find cells for new arrests and courts could grind to a halt.

Burnham’s successive changes

Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in summer 2026 and immediately paused the scheme, which had been due to start in early September. High-profile cases, particularly the potential earlier release of two men convicted of the manslaughter of PC Andrew Harper, generated intense public and political pressure.

In early August the government excluded rape, serious child sexual offences and grooming offences. On 30 August Burnham went further, blocking all forms of manslaughter, death by dangerous or drunk driving, historic child sex offences (including indecent assault), causing or allowing the death of a child, and historic grooming offences. Hundreds more prisoners will now serve their original terms. The first releases under the revised scheme are due from 1 October 2026 in phased tranches rather than all at once. Estimates of those still affected have fallen from around 6,000 to roughly 4,500–5,000 over the first 10 months.

Burnham has said he wanted to exclude even more categories but that doing so would push the estate past breaking point. Extra capacity is supposed to come from faster deportation of foreign national offenders, a review of remaining Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences, better use of the women’s estate, and accelerated prison building. Critics, including former justice secretary David Gauke, have called running the system so close to full capacity a “big risk.”

Why domestic abusers remain a flashpoint

Domestic abuse is rarely prosecuted as a single standalone offence. Perpetrators are commonly convicted of assault, actual bodily harm, criminal damage, stalking, harassment or coercive and controlling behaviour. Because most of these offences are not on the latest exclusion list, many convicted abusers remain eligible for earlier release.

Dame Nicole Jacobs, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, said the 30 August announcement “won’t bring reassurance.” She remains “deeply concerned about the number of abusers who will still be eligible.” Offenders convicted of coercive control — an offence introduced to capture the pattern of domination that precedes many homicides — are among those still set for earlier release. Research cited by her office found that more than half of victims in domestic homicide reviews had been subjected to coercive control before they were killed.

Labour MP Jess Phillips and women’s organisations have argued that coercive control should have been added to the exclusion list. Some campaigners have accused the government of “abandoning women.” Victims have spoken of installing extra security, considering moving house, and living in fear that an abuser will reappear after a shortened sentence. One woman whose ex-partner received 27 months for coercive control and actual bodily harm has been told he will be released early.

The government points to new safeguards. There is a presumption that prison leavers will be electronically tagged. “Restriction zones” — described as a world-first — will confine some serious sexual and violent offenders to tightly defined areas, sometimes only a few miles wide, with victims given a say in drawing the boundaries. GPS monitoring is intended to detect breaches quickly and allow recall to prison. Additional conditions can ban pubs, public events or driving. A domestic-abuse flag at sentencing is meant to improve identification of cases going forward, and the Domestic Abuse Perpetrators on Licence scheme is being expanded.

Jacobs and specialist services say these measures are insufficient without a fundamental overhaul of risk assessment that puts victims and specialist agencies at the centre, plus extra funding for probation and support services. They have asked for published data on how many domestic-abuse perpetrators are released in each tranche. Around 30% of people already managed by probation have a current or former domestic-abuse history; the true figure is thought to be higher.

The bind

The prison numbers problem is real and long-standing. Successive governments have added relatively few net places while the population has grown. Emergency early-release schemes in 2024 already moved thousands of prisoners. Each new exemption reduces the space that can be freed and increases the chance of operational collapse.At the same time, high-profile killings and sexual offences have forced political retreats, while the more numerous, less visible cases of assault and coercive control have not received the same exemptions. Victims of domestic abuse often face a perpetrator who is fixated on them personally; licence conditions and tags have been breached in the past.Burnham has framed the latest package as the furthest he can go without endangering the functioning of the entire criminal-justice system. Whether the combination of tagging, restriction zones and extra probation resource will keep victims safe will be tested from October onwards. The Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s warning is that many survivors will still have to take their own precautions because the system cannot yet guarantee theirs.