Lord Keen of Elie

Following the election, this Government has outlined its ambitions through the Plan for Change, which sets out an ambitious set of milestones - across the missions - for this Parliament.

As the House would expect, Government continually reviews its work to ensure that it is delivering the best outcomes for the people of the United Kingdom, and that its policies continue to represent the best value for the taxpayer.

Public reviews will be available on Gov.uk as they are published.

Data on SDS40 recalls forms a subset of data intended for future publication via the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly).

On 07 November, the Ministry of Justice published transparency data on how many offenders were released on the first days of Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 of SDS40 (1,889 prisoners on the first day of Tranche 1, and 1,223 prisoners on the first day of Tranche 2).

SDS40 is a legal requirement that applies to all prison institutions. Data on prison releases forms a subset of prison population data which is intended for future publication. In accordance with the requirements of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, we may not give any early indication of the contents of this statistical report.

On 07 November, the Ministry of Justice published transparency data on how many offenders were released on the first days of Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 of SDS40 (1,889 prisoners on the first day of Tranche 1, and 1,223 prisoners on the first day of Tranche 2).

SDS40 is a legal requirement that applies to all prison institutions. Data on prison releases forms a subset of prison population data which is intended for future publication. In accordance with the requirements of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, we may not give any early indication of the contents of this statistical report.

Following our inheritance from the previous Government, we were forced to introduce SDS40 as an emergency measure to prevent the imminent collapse of the Criminal Justice System.

Unlike the previous Government’s disastrous early release scheme, this Government ensured that probation had time to complete pre-release work and risk assessments. We also exempted a number of offences, including sex offences, violent offences with over 4 year sentences and specific offences often linked to domestic abuse.

The implementation of SDS40 was considered at a victim support sector roundtable, and then subsequently through meetings with a sector engagement group, which includes a broad range of victims’ groups and representatives. To address the concerns raised about the amount of information available to victims about the measure and its practicalities, we published an explanation of the policy on GOV.UK and provided victim support organisations with frequently asked questions and answers to support them when engaging with victims who may be affected by the measure.