Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what impact the prisoner early release scheme has had on the availability of prison places; and what assessment they have made of alternative measures to address prison overcrowding.

Following the inheritance left by the previous Government, in July 2024, the Lord Chancellor was forced to introduce the SDS40 scheme to avoid imminent gridlock across the Criminal Justice System.

We have already published data for day one of Tranches 1 and 2 on 7 November 2024 on the numbers of prisoners released and are considering how routinely publishing SDS40 data best fits with our regular Accredited Official Statistics.

When this Government came into office, we were dangerously close to prisons overflowing. That would have meant police would have had to stop arresting and we would have face a complete breakdown in law and order.

Whilst the SDS change provided the intended immediate relief to the system, this was never expected to be a long-term solution. To ensure we are never in a position where we run out of prison places again, the Lord Chancellor announced the Independent Review into Sentencing, alongside a series of prison capacity measures. This included reforming our recall practices to target the unsustainable growth in the recall population since the pandemic and an extension of the maximum period offenders can spend on Home Detention Curfew from 6 – 12 months.