Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the number of prisoners serving standard determinate sentences for (a) domestic abuse-related offences, (b) sexual offences and (c) child sexual offences who are eligible for the Government’s early release scheme in accordance with the Sentencing Act 2026.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

First, I would like to express my sincere sympathy with all victims of these appalling crimes. This Government inherited a prisons system days from collapse. We had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe. Our landmark Sentencing Act 2026 will now deliver a more sustainable solution to the prison capacity crisis we inherited, including through the progression model which will help ensure there are always enough places for the courts to be able to send people to custody in order to keep the public safe. The worst thing for victims would be running out of prison space and not being able to lock up dangerous offenders.

The progression model amends release points for offenders on Standard Determinate Sentences. Over 18,000 offenders serving more serious sentences like extended Determinate Sentences or life sentences will be unaffected by these reforms and will be kept in prison for as long as they are now.

Public protection and victims’ interests were central considerations throughout the development of the Sentencing Act 2026 reforms. That is why, once released, offenders will be managed under strict licence conditions in the community.

All offenders will remain on licence until the end of their sentence, and where an offender breaches their licence conditions, probation has a full suite of options available, including recall to custody. We are also introducing restriction zones for the most serious sexual and violent offenders where appropriate, enforced through electronic monitoring. The Government is investing up to £700 million in probation and community services by 2028/29, including recruiting at least 1,300 additional trainee probation officers and expanding tagging capabilities, to ensure the Probation Service has the capacity and tools it needs to manage offenders safely in the community.

Victims who are eligible for and have opted into the Victim Contact Scheme will continue to be notified of an offender’s release and may make representations regarding licence conditions, including exclusion zones and non-contact conditions.

It is not possible to estimate sufficiently accurately the number of future releases because of the uncertainty of the volume of eligible offenders who will be sentenced to prison in the near future nor can we estimate any added days for bad behaviour committed which will determine their release point. The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes Accredited Official Statistics on prisoner releases as part of the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) publication.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential risk to victims of (a) domestic abuse-related offences, (b) sexual offences and (c) child sexual offences arising from the reduction of automatic release points for standard determinate sentences.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

First, I would like to express my sincere sympathy with all victims of these appalling crimes. This Government inherited a prisons system days from collapse. We had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe. Our landmark Sentencing Act 2026 will now deliver a more sustainable solution to the prison capacity crisis we inherited, including through the progression model which will help ensure there are always enough places for the courts to be able to send people to custody in order to keep the public safe. The worst thing for victims would be running out of prison space and not being able to lock up dangerous offenders.

The progression model amends release points for offenders on Standard Determinate Sentences. Over 18,000 offenders serving more serious sentences like extended Determinate Sentences or life sentences will be unaffected by these reforms and will be kept in prison for as long as they are now.

Public protection and victims’ interests were central considerations throughout the development of the Sentencing Act 2026 reforms. That is why, once released, offenders will be managed under strict licence conditions in the community.

All offenders will remain on licence until the end of their sentence, and where an offender breaches their licence conditions, probation has a full suite of options available, including recall to custody. We are also introducing restriction zones for the most serious sexual and violent offenders where appropriate, enforced through electronic monitoring. The Government is investing up to £700 million in probation and community services by 2028/29, including recruiting at least 1,300 additional trainee probation officers and expanding tagging capabilities, to ensure the Probation Service has the capacity and tools it needs to manage offenders safely in the community.

Victims who are eligible for and have opted into the Victim Contact Scheme will continue to be notified of an offender’s release and may make representations regarding licence conditions, including exclusion zones and non-contact conditions.

It is not possible to estimate sufficiently accurately the number of future releases because of the uncertainty of the volume of eligible offenders who will be sentenced to prison in the near future nor can we estimate any added days for bad behaviour committed which will determine their release point. The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes Accredited Official Statistics on prisoner releases as part of the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) publication.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department provides dedicated guidance on minimum rehabilitation requirements for prisoners in custody serving standard determinate sentences for (a) domestic abuse-related offences, (b) sexual offences and (c) child sexual offences.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Rehabilitative interventions are determined for each offender based on their specific needs and offending profile as part of sentence planning. There is no dedicated guidance on minimum rehabilitation requirements specifically for the offence types listed.

In custody, a range of interventions are delivered to support rehabilitation, including Accredited Programmes which are designed to target the underlying factors that can lead to offending by building skills and methods that can help improve decision making, problem solving, and self-management and regulation of emotions. Accredited Programmes are targeted at individuals assessed as presenting a medium or higher risk of reoffending with the targeted risks, as evidence indicates they are most effective for this group.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department operates a single database to record (a) the number of offenders serving standard determinate sentences, (b) their offence category and (c) their release dates.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Department holds information on offenders' offences, sentences and release dates within the Digital Prison Services (DPS) platform and the legacy offender case management system, NOMIS. This information is not held in a single database but these systems combine information from many databases to address operational, reporting and analytical requirements

The current authoritative system of record, with synchronised data, remains the National Offender Management Information System (NOMIS).

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to monitor the safety of release provisions in place for offenders serving custodial sentences for (a) domestic abuse-related offences, (b) sexual offences and (c) child sexual offences who are eligible for early release.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

This Government is committed to strengthening public protection and ensuring the Probation Service has the tools and capacity it needs to keep communities safe and protect victims. We are investing £700m into probation and community services, recruiting 1,300 additional probation officers this year, and ensuring every prison leaver is tagged unless there is clear reason not to. We are delivering the biggest expansion of tagging in history, with thousands of offenders having their every movement tracked as well as investing £100m to expand our ability to monitor even more individuals in the community. These changes will significantly strengthen probation’s ability to monitor offenders in real time and intervene quickly where risk escalates or conditions are breached.

We are ensuring there is a robust regime of controls and punishment outside of prison, offenders may be controlled by a range of measures. This includes curfews, exclusion zones, requirements to live in a different part of the country to their victim, bans from spaces such as sport matches and pubs. This is designed to manage risk and restrict offenders’ movements as necessary.

Probation will apply additional licence conditions where appropriate to address the specific risks an offender presents – including victim-related conditions such as exclusion zones and no-contact requirements. We are also introducing tough new Restriction Zones which will restrict the movements of the most serious sexual and violent offenders to specific geographical areas where appropriate, so their victims know they are safe wherever else they want to go. These will be robustly monitored by electronic monitoring and provide probation with greater visibility of offenders’ movements and strengthen their ability to identify and respond to breaches at an early stage. Victims who are eligible and opted into the Victim Contact Scheme will be notified of an offender’s release, in line with existing practice and will continue to be able to make representations for licence conditions.

From September 2026, we are expanding the Domestic Abuse Perpetrators on Licence (DAPOL) scheme from 8 probation regions to all 12 across England and Wales from September 2026. This will give probation staff a greater ability to track hundreds of prison leavers who pose a threat to a former partner or their children.

We are also introducing Electronic Monitoring Data Insight (EMDI), a new tool allowing probation practitioners near real-time access to electronic monitoring information and GPS trail maps. This will help practitioners monitor compliance with licence conditions, identify emerging risks more quickly and make better-informed decisions and make better-informed decisions to support public protection.

We are extending and expanding a feasibility pilot in the South West of England to the North West and North East NHS regions pilot on the use of Medication to Manage Problematic Sexual Arousal (MMPSA) for sex offenders, which marks a vital first step towards a national rollout and is a wider intervention probation can use. We are also exploring the feasibility of mandatory or incentivised treatment.

Our CAS 1 provision, also known as Approved Premises, accommodates higher-risk prison leavers and people on probation. Approved Premises are temporary accommodation for public protection purposes in the community and are staffed 24 hours a day, operate a curfew, carry out mandatory drug testing, closely monitor licence conditions, and are covered by CCTV across all sites. They provide a high level of supervision in a controlled environment and are closely integrated with Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA). This will allow continuous monitoring of the highest risk offenders as they transition from custody to the community.

Probation has a broad range of tools available when setting conditions or managing offenders safely in the community. These will be dependent on the specific risks posed by each offender and not all measures will be applied in every case. All offenders will remain on licence to the end of their sentence and where an offender breaches their licence conditions, probation have a full suite of options for managing this, including recall to prison.

All Ministry of Justice policies are routinely kept under review and statistics relevant to core policies will be published in the usual way to support public scrutiny.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether Victim Liaison Officers will make recommendations regarding victim safety prior to the early release of any prisoner convicted of (a) sexual offences, (b) child sexual offences and (c) domestic abuse-related offences under the Earned Progression Model; and whether those recommended safety measures will be fully implemented ahead of any such release.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Sections 35 to 45 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 provide eligible victims with statutory rights under the Probation Service Victim Contact Scheme, including the opportunity to make representations about licence conditions and to receive relevant information about an offender's release. These arrangements apply equally to releases under the Earned Progression Model. This includes eligible sexual, child sexual and domestic abuse-related offences where the victim falls within the scope of the Victim Contact Scheme.

In line with policy, there is engagement between the Probation Practitioner responsible for supervising the offender on licence and the Victim Liaison Officer, to ensure that victims' views on licence conditions are sought and considered prior to any release subject to licence. In cases involving eligible violent or sexual offences where an offender has received a custodial sentence of 12 months or more, Victim Liaison Officers engage with victims regarding proposed licence conditions and any conditions they wish to request. These may include measures such as exclusion zones and non-contact conditions.

The role of the Victim Liaison Officer is to ensure that victims’ views and concerns are heard throughout the offender management process, including prior to release. Their role is to obtain and communicate victims’ views to the Probation Practitioner.

Victims are then informed of the outcome of decisions relating to licence conditions, including any agreed exclusion zones. Arrangements are made before release to ensure that approved licence conditions take effect from the point of release including implementing electronic monitoring or GPS exclusion zones. Where victim representations are not reflected in the final licence conditions, the reasons for the decision will be communicated to the victim. There is no formal appeal process for victims in relation to licence conditions, although concerns may be raised through existing HMPPS complaints procedures.

The Department keeps operational resource requirements under review and works closely with probation regions to ensure that statutory obligations to victims continue to be met, including those delivered through the Victim Contact Scheme.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether there is a requirement to ensure that a Victim Liaison Officer is formally consulted regarding victim safety and geographic exclusion zones prior to the early release of any prisoner convicted of (a) sexual offences, (b) child sexual offences and (c) domestic abuse-related offences.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Sections 35 to 45 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 provide eligible victims with statutory rights under the Probation Service Victim Contact Scheme, including the opportunity to make representations about licence conditions and to receive relevant information about an offender's release. These arrangements apply equally to releases under the Earned Progression Model. This includes eligible sexual, child sexual and domestic abuse-related offences where the victim falls within the scope of the Victim Contact Scheme.

In line with policy, there is engagement between the Probation Practitioner responsible for supervising the offender on licence and the Victim Liaison Officer, to ensure that victims' views on licence conditions are sought and considered prior to any release subject to licence. In cases involving eligible violent or sexual offences where an offender has received a custodial sentence of 12 months or more, Victim Liaison Officers engage with victims regarding proposed licence conditions and any conditions they wish to request. These may include measures such as exclusion zones and non-contact conditions.

The role of the Victim Liaison Officer is to ensure that victims’ views and concerns are heard throughout the offender management process, including prior to release. Their role is to obtain and communicate victims’ views to the Probation Practitioner.

Victims are then informed of the outcome of decisions relating to licence conditions, including any agreed exclusion zones. Arrangements are made before release to ensure that approved licence conditions take effect from the point of release including implementing electronic monitoring or GPS exclusion zones. Where victim representations are not reflected in the final licence conditions, the reasons for the decision will be communicated to the victim. There is no formal appeal process for victims in relation to licence conditions, although concerns may be raised through existing HMPPS complaints procedures.

The Department keeps operational resource requirements under review and works closely with probation regions to ensure that statutory obligations to victims continue to be met, including those delivered through the Victim Contact Scheme.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what policy protocol is in place under the Earned Progression Model when a releasing authority declines to implement a safety or geographic exclusion zone recommendation made by a Victim Liaison Officer; and what the formal appeal or review mechanism is for a victim if such a recommendation is rejected.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Sections 35 to 45 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 provide eligible victims with statutory rights under the Probation Service Victim Contact Scheme, including the opportunity to make representations about licence conditions and to receive relevant information about an offender's release. These arrangements apply equally to releases under the Earned Progression Model. This includes eligible sexual, child sexual and domestic abuse-related offences where the victim falls within the scope of the Victim Contact Scheme.

In line with policy, there is engagement between the Probation Practitioner responsible for supervising the offender on licence and the Victim Liaison Officer, to ensure that victims' views on licence conditions are sought and considered prior to any release subject to licence. In cases involving eligible violent or sexual offences where an offender has received a custodial sentence of 12 months or more, Victim Liaison Officers engage with victims regarding proposed licence conditions and any conditions they wish to request. These may include measures such as exclusion zones and non-contact conditions.

The role of the Victim Liaison Officer is to ensure that victims’ views and concerns are heard throughout the offender management process, including prior to release. Their role is to obtain and communicate victims’ views to the Probation Practitioner.

Victims are then informed of the outcome of decisions relating to licence conditions, including any agreed exclusion zones. Arrangements are made before release to ensure that approved licence conditions take effect from the point of release including implementing electronic monitoring or GPS exclusion zones. Where victim representations are not reflected in the final licence conditions, the reasons for the decision will be communicated to the victim. There is no formal appeal process for victims in relation to licence conditions, although concerns may be raised through existing HMPPS complaints procedures.

The Department keeps operational resource requirements under review and works closely with probation regions to ensure that statutory obligations to victims continue to be met, including those delivered through the Victim Contact Scheme.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department takes to verify that all protective licence conditions and GPS exclusion zones recommended by a Victim Liaison Officer are (a) fully active and (b) communicated to the victim before an offender is released under the intensive supervision stage of the Earned Progression Model.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Sections 35 to 45 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 provide eligible victims with statutory rights under the Probation Service Victim Contact Scheme, including the opportunity to make representations about licence conditions and to receive relevant information about an offender's release. These arrangements apply equally to releases under the Earned Progression Model. This includes eligible sexual, child sexual and domestic abuse-related offences where the victim falls within the scope of the Victim Contact Scheme.

In line with policy, there is engagement between the Probation Practitioner responsible for supervising the offender on licence and the Victim Liaison Officer, to ensure that victims' views on licence conditions are sought and considered prior to any release subject to licence. In cases involving eligible violent or sexual offences where an offender has received a custodial sentence of 12 months or more, Victim Liaison Officers engage with victims regarding proposed licence conditions and any conditions they wish to request. These may include measures such as exclusion zones and non-contact conditions.

The role of the Victim Liaison Officer is to ensure that victims’ views and concerns are heard throughout the offender management process, including prior to release. Their role is to obtain and communicate victims’ views to the Probation Practitioner.

Victims are then informed of the outcome of decisions relating to licence conditions, including any agreed exclusion zones. Arrangements are made before release to ensure that approved licence conditions take effect from the point of release including implementing electronic monitoring or GPS exclusion zones. Where victim representations are not reflected in the final licence conditions, the reasons for the decision will be communicated to the victim. There is no formal appeal process for victims in relation to licence conditions, although concerns may be raised through existing HMPPS complaints procedures.

The Department keeps operational resource requirements under review and works closely with probation regions to ensure that statutory obligations to victims continue to be met, including those delivered through the Victim Contact Scheme.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the administrative and casework capacity of Victim Liaison Officers to manage the increased volume of statutory consultations required under the early release provisions of the Earned Progression Model.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Sections 35 to 45 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 provide eligible victims with statutory rights under the Probation Service Victim Contact Scheme, including the opportunity to make representations about licence conditions and to receive relevant information about an offender's release. These arrangements apply equally to releases under the Earned Progression Model. This includes eligible sexual, child sexual and domestic abuse-related offences where the victim falls within the scope of the Victim Contact Scheme.

In line with policy, there is engagement between the Probation Practitioner responsible for supervising the offender on licence and the Victim Liaison Officer, to ensure that victims' views on licence conditions are sought and considered prior to any release subject to licence. In cases involving eligible violent or sexual offences where an offender has received a custodial sentence of 12 months or more, Victim Liaison Officers engage with victims regarding proposed licence conditions and any conditions they wish to request. These may include measures such as exclusion zones and non-contact conditions.

The role of the Victim Liaison Officer is to ensure that victims’ views and concerns are heard throughout the offender management process, including prior to release. Their role is to obtain and communicate victims’ views to the Probation Practitioner.

Victims are then informed of the outcome of decisions relating to licence conditions, including any agreed exclusion zones. Arrangements are made before release to ensure that approved licence conditions take effect from the point of release including implementing electronic monitoring or GPS exclusion zones. Where victim representations are not reflected in the final licence conditions, the reasons for the decision will be communicated to the victim. There is no formal appeal process for victims in relation to licence conditions, although concerns may be raised through existing HMPPS complaints procedures.

The Department keeps operational resource requirements under review and works closely with probation regions to ensure that statutory obligations to victims continue to be met, including those delivered through the Victim Contact Scheme.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the timetable is for the implementation of the bovine Tuberculosis eradication strategy for England.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

This Government is currently considering the proposals set out in the recommended bovine TB control strategy for England.

The department will continue to work closely with farmers, vets, scientists and industry partners to move swiftly from recommendations to implementation through a series of rolling three to five-year delivery plans.

The first delivery plan will be published in due course and will set out the first timetable for implementation of the strategy's recommendations.

Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, with reference to the press release entitled Patients to benefit from faster access to medicines as UK moves away from animal testing in science, published on 12 August 2026, if he will provide a breakdown of that funding, including the (a) name of each project, (b) recipient organisation and (c) amount awarded to each project.

Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Innovate UK awarded funding to the following projects: VivoSphere CardioSafe Platform for Reproducible, Regulatory-Ready In Vitro Cardiotoxicity Screening (VivoSphere UK, £200,000); RITMO (BiomimX Srl, £199,991); a cardiovascular safety framework (University of Nottingham, £198,464); Integrated MPS-PBPK Platform for Non Animal Human PK Prediction (CN Bio Innovations, £180,980); chemically expanded hepatocytes for pharmacokinetic studies (University of Edinburgh, £194,563); Human Representative In Vitro Models for Ear Therapeutics (CamGene Therapeutics, £196,194); CANVAS (Biofoundry Energy, £197,092); a cardiovascular safety platform (InoCardia, £188,966); computational prediction of lipid nanoparticle pharmacokinetics (Nanograb, £199,390); and PKBridge (IOTeach, £197,500).

Found: of State for International Development and Africa King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH Sarah Champion

Found: Yours sincerely, Sarah Champion MP Chair of the International Development Committee

Found: for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH Sarah Champion

Found: Yours sincerely, Sarah Champion MP Chair of the International Development Committee

Found: State for International Development and Africa King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH Sarah Champion

Found: Yours sincerely, Sarah Champion MP Chair of the International Development Committee

Found: Yours sincerely, Sarah Champion MP Chair, International Development Committee

Found: Security & Net Zero 55 Whitehall London SW1A 2HP 3 September 2026 Sarah Champion

Found: Merlin will occasionally require substitution by Ray Arrell, Director at Regen; • Sarah Champion MP

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Sarah Champion (Chair); Janet Daby; Tracy Gilbert; Monica Harding