Prime Minister Andy Burnham has ordered an “urgent” review to identify any grooming gang members who may be eligible to be freed from jail under the government’s early release scheme.
The announcement comes after Tory leader Kemi Badenoch raised concerns that child sex offenders could leave jail well before the end of their sentences.
She pointed out that indecent assault was not included in the list of offences that the government said would be excluded, external from the early release scheme.
Five men convicted of indecent assault as part of a historical grooming-gang case in Bradford are among the prisoners whose offences were not included in the list of exclusions.
The prime minister’s spokesperson said Burnham had asked the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to “conduct an in-depth review of cases to ensure that grooming cases were identified”.
“This work is happening urgently,” Burnham’s spokesperson said.
“This is extremely important to the PM and he has personally intervened to ensure everything possible is being done so that vile groomers are dealt with in the way their victims deserve.”
It is understood that at this stage the review will only seek to identify offenders who might be released early.
The government has not confirmed whether the review will lead to the prevention of any early releases of offenders convicted of grooming-related crimes.
Badenoch described the intervention as “another U-turn secured” and “another review from Burnham following my letter”.
The government is planning to release about 5,000 offenders in England and Wales early in an effort to make space in overcrowded jails.
Burnham launched a review of the scheme after he became prime minister and this week he announced that some prisoners convicted of rape, serious child sex and other grooming offences would barred from early release.
But in a letter, external, Badenoch said many more types of offenders – including those convicted of sexually assaulting children – could be freed early.
“On Tuesday, you told the country that those convicted of grooming offences would be excluded,” she wrote. “Your own government has now put in writing that some of these men will be released early anyway.”
Highlighting that indecent assault was not excluded from the early release scheme, Badenoch said “many cases of child sex abuse committed before 2004 were charged this way, including Rotherham and Rochdale”.
Badenoch branded this a “betrayal of victims”, and urged Burnham to publish the full list of offences that remain eligible for early release.
Under changes made by Burnham, external, people sentenced for rape, serious child sex and grooming offences will now not be eligible for early release from October.
But some prisoners who are not excluded could be freed after serving a third of their total custodial sentence rather than after 40% or 50% of their term.
Burnham said he had wanted to exclude more offenders, but prison overcrowding prevented this.
The prime minister said making more prisoners exempt was not possible without the prison system collapsing and putting the public “at much greater risk”.
The prison population in England and Wales on 3 August was 86,495, which was 97% of useable capacity.
The number of places in jails in England and Wales has not kept pace with the significant rise in the prison population in recent decades under successive governments.
There are cases of offenders who were convicted of indecent assault under section 14 and 15 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956.
These sections of the 1956 Act were not included in the government’s list of exclusions, suggesting prisoners convicted of these crimes could qualify for the early release scheme.
Five men who were jailed in October 2005, external, after being convicted of indecent assault for abusing a teenage girl in Bradford in the early 2000s, could be eligible for early release under the scheme.
In December 2024, Ajaz Karim was jailed for 21 months after he was convicted of indecent assault for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl at the school where he was a sports coach.
In another case, Shahid Hussain was jailed for eight years in September 2024, after he was convicted of indecently assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Rotherham in 2003.
The government has not yet confirmed exactly which offenders will be released.
The mother of PC Andrew Harper also said she was “devastated” to learn two men jailed after her son was killed will still be eligible for early release.
PC Harper, 28, was killed in 2019 when he was dragged by a car down a country road as three teenagers fled the scene of a quad bike theft in Berkshire.
His family previously said they had received a letter from the Ministry of Justice confirming that two of the offenders could be included in the early release scheme.
Earlier this week, Justice Secretary Alex Norris apologised to families affected by the early release scheme, saying they were “carrying the can from previous failures”.
The justice secretary said about 5,000 extra releases will take place in 10 batches from October – down from about 6,000 before the revision.
The changes are due to be phased in, beginning with prisoners serving sentences of fewer than 575 days, going up to inmates jailed for 12 years or more being eligible for early release in June 2027.
The number of individuals released each time will depend on the prison population, which the government says will evolve between now and implementation.
