Early-Release Scheme Scaled Back but Harper's Killers Eligible
The government formally scaled back its emergency prisoner early-release scheme on Tuesday, barring serious sexual offenders, but it emerged that the men jailed over the death of PC Andrew Harper could still qualify for release. The Police Federation called that “unacceptable”, and critics seized on the anomaly. Ministers introduced the scheme to relieve dangerously overcrowded jails.
Andrew Harper, a Thames Valley officer, was dragged to his death behind a car in 2019 in a case that caused national outrage and led to a change in the law on killing emergency workers. That his killers remain eligible for early release, even as rapists and child abusers are excluded, exposed the difficulty of drawing clean lines in a scheme forced on ministers by a prison system close to collapse. Andy Burnham has said he wanted to go “further” in tightening it. Campaigners for victims want a rethink. Watch whether ministers move to close the loophole under pressure.