Conservatives warn dangerous criminals could be released under UK's early-release scheme

The UK's Conservative Party warned Monday that Prime Minister Andy Burnham's early-release scheme could result in dangerous prisoners being freed as the government seeks to ease prison overcrowding.

"In order to prevent one group of dangerous criminals being released early, he's looking at releasing a different group of dangerous prisoners," Conservative shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy told the BBC.

The early-release scheme was introduced after the prison system came close to running out of capacity in the summer of 2024, with fewer than 100 spaces remaining.

An updated version of the scheme is due to take effect Oct. 1.

On Sunday, Burnham announced that the scheme would be further narrowed to exclude those convicted of serious offenses, including manslaughter, historic child sex offenses, causing or allowing the death of a child and killing an emergency worker in the line of duty.

"The truth is I wanted to go even further. But I've pushed the system to the very limits of what's possible without risking the prison system collapsing within months," Burnham said in a statement.

The prime minister said additional prison space would be found in part by releasing some of the 2,271 inmates serving Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences, issued between 2005 and 2012, which allow prisoners deemed a risk to public safety to be held indefinitely beyond their minimum terms.

The government said the move would address what it called a "historic injustice" and would be accompanied by some of the "toughest ever supervision measures for offenders" after their release.

Timothy acknowledged that Burnham was grappling with an overcrowding problem he did not create, saying he was "fully open" about the previous Conservative government's failure to build enough prison places.

The Labour government blamed previous Conservative governments for a lack of investment in the prison estate, saying just 500 net places were added over more than a decade, while adult male prisons are now at 98% capacity.

"Under this government, more than 3,200 prison places have already been built, with 14,000 expected by 2031 under the largest prison build expansion since the Victorian era," Burnham's office said Sunday.

Meanwhile, citing prison governors, the BBC reported Sunday that prisoners released early were returning to jail at a rapid rate.

As of March, more than 70,000 people had been released under the early-release scheme introduced in 2024.​​​​​​​