Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to prevent domestic abusers convicted of other offences from being released early.

This Government inherited a criminal justice system on the brink of collapse, with prisons weeks away from overflowing. This would have meant complete gridlock of the system and impacted the police’s ability to arrest people. As a result, we were forced to bring in emergency measures that see the automatic release points for standard determinate sentences reduced to 40%.

There are a number of offences excluded from this change including serious violent offences with sentences of four years or more, sex offences and a series of offences connected to domestic abuse. Exempting domestic abuse related offences and allowing probation a number of weeks to prepare is a significant departure from the previous Government’s End of Custody Licence scheme which saw c13,000 offenders released early.

It is only possible to legally exempt specific offences and domestic abusers are prosecuted under many crimes. Our exclusions send a very clear message about how seriously this Government takes domestic abuse.