Issue 398  17th May 2025

Prisoners will be released from jail as little as a third of the way through their sentences if they behave well, under government plans to tackle the overcrowding crisis. Offenders will be able to earn their freedom after serving a third of their sentences if they complete work, training or education assignments and demonstrate good behaviour before being freed. If they fail to behave, they will have to spend longer in jail under the shake-up that will see the current automatic early release of offenders 40 per cent of the way through their sentences scrapped. Instead, convicted criminals will be given minimum and maximum sentences. Prisoners who fail to behave and engage with their training, education or work will face upper jail time limits that are significantly longer than the current 40 per cent automatic release date.

The changes – designed to incentivise rehabilitation – are part of a package of measures to combat prison overcrowding which will be recommended to the Government next week by its independent sentencing review led by David Gauke, the former Tory justice secretary. It will be the biggest shake-up in sentencing for more than 30 years, ending a blanket approach to automatic early release introduced in the 1991 Criminal Justice Act. Most prisoners are currently guaranteed release after serving 40 per cent, 50 per cent or, since 2003, two-thirds of their sentences...

The UK model would see some well-behaved offenders serve a third of their sentence in jail. This would be followed by a third on “enhanced” licence where they would be subject to electronic tags, curfews and have their passports confiscated. A final third would be on normal licence where breaches result in recalls to jail. This “third, third, third” model will not be a blanket approach for all prisoners but is expected to be targeted at categories of offenders serving “standard determinate” or fixed-term sentences, which could include burglars, thieves, fraudsters and those convicted of assault. It is thought that prisoners on “extended determinate” or on “indeterminate” sentences for more serious crimes where a parole board decides if they are safe to release will probably be excluded. Sex offenders, terrorists and domestic abusers on determinate sentences may also be excluded from the “third, third, third” model..

Vulnerable people who are encouraged or assisted to harm themselves will have greater protection under a new offence being introduced as part of the Crime and Policing Bill... The new laws will make it a criminal offence to directly assist someone to self-harm - such as giving someone a blade or sending them pills – whether it is done in person or online. This will build on existing laws that already prevent people encouraging or assisting suicide or self-harm through content online...

The Crime and Policing Bill will repeal the existing offence and replace it with a broader offence of encouraging or assisting serious self-harm to cover all means by which serious self-harm broader may be encouraged or assisted, including by any means of communication and in any other way The offence contains two key elements to ensure that the offence does not disproportionately impact vulnerable people who harm themselves and constrains the offence to only the most culpable offending. These are (1) that the defendant’s act must be intended to encourage or assisting the serious self-harm of another person; and (2) that the defendant’s act is capable of encouraging or assisting the serious self-harm of another person. The offence therefore targets those who intend by their act to cause another person to seriously self-harm Sharing experiences of self-harm, or simply discussing the issue, without such intention will not be a criminal offence...

A man who has served almost 38 years in prison for the murder of a woman has had his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal after new DNA evidence emerged. Peter Sullivan was jailed over the 1986 killing of 21-year-old barmaid Diane Sindall, who was subjected to a frenzied sexual attack in Birkenhead, Merseyside, as she walked home from a shift. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) - the statutory body set up to investigate potential miscarriages of justice - had referred Mr Sullivan's case back to the appeal court last year after fresh testing found a DNA profile pointing to an unknown attacker in semen samples preserved from the crime scene...

Mr Sullivan, appearing on video-link from HMP Wakefield, sobbed and held his hand over his mouth as he was told he would be released. Now aged 68, he is believed to be the victim of the longest miscarriage of justice involving a living prisoner in British legal history...

The Ministry of Justice’s headquarters at 102 Petty France will close for good as part of the government’s agenda to make the civil service less London-centric, the Cabinet Office has confirmed. The government wants 50% of UK-based senior civil servants to be based in the English regions, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland by 2030, as part of its ‘Places for Growth’ programme. Cross-government 'regional hubs' will be set up in Greater Manchester, York, Leeds, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Bristol, Cardiff, Belfast, Sheffield, Darlington and Tyneside.

The Cabinet Office yesterday announced that 11 buildings, including 102 Petty France, will close as part of a ‘Plan for London’. The 1970s development 102 Petty France is home to the Ministry of Justice, Government Legal Department, Crown Prosecution Service and Law Commission...