Early Release of Prisoners

Paula Barker Excerpts

Tuesday 7th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Jake Richards]

I will not give way another time.

Once prisoners are released, offenders will be subject to strict licence conditions. We are adding tougher restrictions as part of the Probation Service’s toolkit for managing offenders when they leave prison. That includes restriction zones, which can be used for the most serious sexual and violent offenders, pinning the offender to certain areas rather than restricting the movements of victims.

We are ramping up tagging to monitor offenders in the community, with thousands more subject to 24/7 monitoring and curfews. We are already tagging at record levels, and we will invest a further £100 million to expand our ability to monitor even more offenders. That is the biggest expansion of tagging in history. Also, while on licence, offenders can be recalled immediately if they cannot be safely managed in the community.

To carry out all that additional supervision, we need a Probation Service that is fighting fit. That is why we are increasing probation—

[Paula Barker (Liverpool Wavertree) (Lab)]

I understand what the Minister is saying about the looming prison crisis, but I just wonder whether he can explain to us how releasing dangerous sexual predators and grooming gang members fits with our manifesto commitment to halve violence against women and girls?

[Jake Richards]

I understand my hon. Friend’s intervention. Let us be clear that many of the offenders we are talking about have been released previously and would continue being released but for the Sentencing Act. This is about what measures we put in the community to ensure that the community is safe, and that is why we are investing more than ever before in our Probation Service and why we have recruited a further 1,300 probation officers this year. We are refocusing supervision to devote more time to dangerous offenders so that we can better protect the public. This is ultimately the choice: either strict licence conditions in the community for those who have already served time in prison under the changes; or, simply put, the collapse of the system altogether, leaving sex offenders and others to act with impunity.

I understand how distressing it can be for victims when an offender in their case is released. That is why we are taking steps, as I have already touched upon, to contact those eligible for and opted into the victim contact scheme to let them know how these changes will affect them, but I recognise that this will not cover all victims affected. That is why, through the Victims and Courts Act 2026, we will for the first time provide a new dedicated route for all victims to request information about an offender. We must ensure that we get this right, which is why it is taking some time to implement carefully, but this is proper engagement with victims rather than the chaotic botched emergency release schemes that we had under the previous Government.

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[Paula Barker]

The right hon. Gentleman is being very generous with his time. Does he agree that this House is at its best when we put party politics aside, as my hon. Friend the Member for Alloa and Grangemouth (Brian Leishman) said? We owe it to all our constituents and to the country as a whole to come together and find a solution to this problem; that is not beyond the wit of man, and is within the scope of this House.

[Sir John Hayes]

The hon. Lady is right. If you will allow me to digress for a moment, Madam Deputy Speaker, I am often asked by constituents—I imagine other hon. Members are asked the same question—“How on earth do you get on with people on the other side of the House?” I respond by saying that I get on with them just as well as I do with the people on my side when we come together to fight a battle, take up a campaign, or defend a cause that we believe is right and good. No party has a monopoly on wisdom. No Government get everything right. Governments make mistakes, as indeed do parties, and when we are big enough to acknowledge that publicly, we grow in respect; we are not diminished by it. The hon. Lady has grown today by her suggestion, and I hope that the Minister, too, will grow when he accepts it.

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[Catherine Atkinson]

There is no specific offence on grooming gangs. This Government have been absolutely clear that we will ensure there will always be prison cells for people when they are convicted and sentenced to custody. The Conservative Governments committed to delivering 20,000 additional prison places by the mid-2020s.

[Paula Barker]

The Minister has stated from the Dispatch Box that victims have been failed, and I absolutely concur with that statement. She has also mentioned that there are record numbers of convictions. Does she agree that if we release these abhorrent individuals, who have committed the most heinous crimes against women and girls in our society, we will see those numbers fall again, because victims will not come forward? Are the victims not being failed again if we release these perpetrators? I implore her to listen to the debate and come forward with emergency legislation or, as the right hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Sir John Hayes) has said, with a written statement tomorrow.

[Catherine Atkinson]

I have listened very carefully to this debate. I will always listen to victims, but I want to ensure that I can look them in the eyes and know that when offenders are convicted and sentenced to custody, there are prison cells for them. That is where we were left by the last Government in real difficulty.