'Early release scheme is causing victims stress'

The chief executive of West Mercia Women's Aid said the details surrounding an early release scheme for some prisoners in England and Wales is causing victims to feel worried and uncertain.

The government is planning to release around 5,000 offenders early in an effort to make space in overcrowded jails, as part of the Sentencing Act 2026.

Andy Burnham launched a review of the scheme after he became prime minister and this week announced that some prisoners convicted of rape, serious child sex offences and other grooming offences would be barred from early release.

"The position is still clearly evolving, so that uncertainty itself is causing an enormous amount of stress," said Sue Coleman.

"Victims are really not clear whether or not their perpetrator is going to come out early; what kind of support is going to be in place for them in terms of making sure that they know what the arrangements are for their perpetrators; and for monitoring and controlling their perpetrators' movements," she said.

West Mercia Women's Aid provides support, prevention and protection services for women and girls who are victims of domestic abuse and violence in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire.

The scheme was part of Sir Keir Starmer's government's plan to tackle the unprecedented crisis of overcrowded jails it had inherited.

Originally, more than 18,000 offenders serving more serious sentences for life imprisonment and extended determinate sentences were already not eligible.

In the wake of the changes this week, Burnham said he had wanted to exclude more offenders, but prison overcrowding prevented this.

The prime minister said making more prisoners exempt was not possible without the prison system collapsing and putting the public "at much greater risk".

Justice Secretary, Alex Norris, said about 5,000 extra releases will take place in 10 batches from October - down from about 6,000 before the revision.

Burnham has since ordered an "urgent" review to identify any grooming gang members who may be eligible to be freed from jail under the government's early release scheme.

The announcement comes after Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, raised concerns that child sex offenders could leave jail well before the end of their sentences.

"Whatever arrangements are put in place, they're still not necessarily going to make the kind of difference that will make women safe," said Coleman.

"It's very difficult to keep women safe when there are perpetrators that are totally determined to harm them, control them, even when they've left that relationship.

"A lot of women not only have to leave relationships, they have to leave their homes, their home area, they may [even] have to leave part of the country that they live in in order to remain safe, because of the extent that those perpetrators feel that they have a right to continue to control them."

She added: "Even being banned by protective orders doesn't necessarily deter them [perpetrators] from continuing to harass and threaten."

Coleman said she wanted the prime minister to take the amount of women who will experience domestic violence seriously.

"A very very clear message needs to be sent to perpetrators that we will not tolerate it and not show it any relative leniency."

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