Burnham Orders Review to Block Grooming-Gang Releases
Andy Burnham has ordered an urgent review to stop members of grooming gangs from qualifying for early release from prison, personally intervening to close what officials called a loophole in the scheme. The move follows an outcry over which offenders remain eligible under the emergency policy to ease overcrowded jails. It comes as the Conservatives press to block the early release of the men who killed PC Andrew Harper.
The grooming-gang scandals, in towns including Rochdale and Rotherham, remain among the most emotive in recent British history, and any suggestion that perpetrators could be freed early was always politically explosive. Mr Burnham’s personal intervention, even from his summer holiday, signals how sensitive the government is to the charge that its prisons policy risks releasing dangerous offenders. The early-release scheme, forced on ministers by a system close to collapse, keeps throwing up such flashpoints. Victims’ campaigners have pressed for the exclusions to be widened. Watch how far the review extends the list of those barred.