Prime Minister Reverses Course on Early Release for PC Harper's Killers
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has instructed the Justice Secretary to find a way to exclude the killers of PC Andrew Harper from an early release scheme designed to ease prison overcrowding, reversing an earlier Downing Street position that individual cases could not be carved out. BBC News
A government spokesperson said Burnham has asked Justice Secretary Alex Norris to work through further options to keep a greater number of the most serious offenders in prison, including the killers of PC Harper. A source said Norris would set out "in due course" how the government would exclude Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers from early release. The prime minister has been making daily calls while on holiday to find a solution, according to sources. BBC News
Cole and Bowers were sentenced to 13 years for the manslaughter of PC Harper in 2020. PC Harper, 28, from Wallingford, Oxfordshire, died in 2019 when he was dragged behind a getaway car after three teenagers fled the scene of a quad bike theft in Berkshire. BBC News
Under changes to the Sentencing Act made in 2024, Cole and Bowers, who were found not guilty of murder, will become eligible for release from custody in January 2025 after serving half of their sentences. They are in the category of prisoners convicted of certain serious violent or sexual crimes who until now had to serve at least two-thirds of their sentence before being considered for release. The third man jailed for the manslaughter of PC Harper, vehicle driver Henry Long, received a longer 16-year jail term and, because he received an extended determinate sentence, cannot be considered for the early release scheme. BBC News
Downing Street had earlier warned that it would not be possible to exclude "one or two offenders" convicted of manslaughter from the early release of prisoners. BBC News
The intervention follows sustained pressure from policing and the family of PC Harper. The officer who led the police investigation into PC Harper's death said he is "appalled" that the killers could be eligible for early release from prison. BBC News A police chief is considering legal action over PC Harper's killers being included in the government's early release scheme. BBC News PC Harper's widow said she "won't give up" the fight against the killers' early release. BBC News
The government's early release scheme begins in October. BBC News Around 5,000 people are expected to be released under the sentencing changes, down from 6,000 after exemptions were previously announced for those convicted of the most serious crimes including rape, child sex offences and grooming. BBC News
The Justice Secretary apologised to families over the prisoner early release scheme. BBC News Norris said about 1,000 prisoners would now not be released early following a revision to the early release scheme. BBC News
The early release scheme, known as SDS40, allows certain prisoners serving a standard determinate sentence with a 50% conditional release point to be released at the 40% point. gov.uk The government's revised early release scheme automatically excludes prisoners sentenced for serious violent offences of four years or more, as well as sex offences. gov.uk The change to automatic release dates does not apply to sentences for sex offences or serious violent offences with a sentence of four years or more. gov.uk
The broader context here is the tension between managing a prisons estate operating at capacity and the political and public response when sentencing concessions reach high-profile cases. The government's earlier line, that individual offenders convicted of manslaughter could not be carved out from the scheme, reflected the operational logic of a blanket policy designed to reduce prison numbers predictably. The reversal suggests that logic has met a threshold of political pressure it could not withstand, particularly with the policing lobby and a bereaved family applying it directly.
The key question for practitioners is the mechanism. Norris has said only that options are being worked through, and the legal route for excluding Cole and Bowers specifically, given the terms of the Sentencing Act changes and their categorisation, is not yet clear. The earlier revisions to the scheme, which removed around 1,000 prisoners by excluding those convicted of serious violent offences of four years or more, did not capture Cole and Bowers, whose manslaughter convictions fell outside that automatic exemption. How the government constructs a further exclusion — whether through secondary legislation (a type of law ministers can make without a full parliamentary process) or ministerial direction — will be closely watched.
