Andy Burnham has told his team to stop the early prison release plan that was due to start in September. He wants an urgent review before anyone is let out under the scheme.

In a statement on Thursday, Burnham said he was working closely with the new justice secretary. He said no prisoners would be released under the plan until the review was finished and "everything possible is done to minimise risk to the public," according to BBC News.

Under the scheme, prisoners would be released after serving half of their sentence instead of the usual two-thirds. The rest of their sentence would be spent in the community, where they would be monitored. If they broke the rules again, they could be sent back to prison. The government brought in the plan because prisons were getting too full. Officials said that without action, jails would have run out of space entirely by June, per gov.uk.

The decision to pause the scheme follows anger from opposition parties, victims, and their families. Thousands of letters were sent to victims warning them that the early release plan was coming in September. Part of what prompted Burnham to act was anger that the killers of PC Harper could benefit from the policy, GB News reported.

Burnham is also looking at ways to make the scheme stricter. One idea is to ban child sex offenders from early release altogether, according to The Times.

This is not the first time the government has tried to manage prison numbers. In July 2024, the lord chancellor reduced the proportion of certain sentences served in prison from 50% to 40% (gov.uk). In September 2025, the government introduced an "earned progression model," where prisoners who break the rules spend longer inside. That came with what was described as the biggest-ever expansion of electronic tagging (gov.uk). In April 2026, the Deputy Prime Minister pledged to cut prison release mistakes to "as close to zero as possible," backed by up to £82 million for a digital overhaul of the prison system (gov.uk).

The broader context here is the clash between two pressures. Prisons are dangerously full, so the government needs to free up space. But the public also needs to feel confident that sentencing is tough enough. The early release plan was the main tool used to buy time. Burnham's pause narrows that window while the review happens. The justice secretary now has to find a way through both problems at once.

The idea of keeping certain types of offender out of early release is not new. But Burnham publicly exploring a ban on child sex offenders suggests he is willing to go further than the current rules allow. If that ban happens, fewer prisoners would qualify for early release, which could reopen the space problem the scheme was meant to fix. The new justice secretary's response will shape what comes next.

For victims and their families, the damage from the warning letters has already been done. Burnham's pause may stop further releases, but it does not take away the worry already caused. The review will need to look at who should qualify for early release and at how the government talks to victims about these decisions.

There is also a UK-wide angle to consider. Prison policy in Scotland and Northern Ireland is handled by their own governments, not Westminster. In Wales, justice is handled by the Senedd, the Welsh parliament. Burnham's scheme applies to England and Wales only. If the rules are tightened there, it could mean different approaches across the UK. How much the justice secretary works with the other nations will determine whether this stays an England-and-Wales story or becomes a UK-wide one.