Critics say the move, which will keep PC Harper’s killers in jail, leaves number of prison spaces ‘too close to the bone’
PC Andrew Harper’s killers will remain behind bars after a critical intervention by Andy Burnham, but the move has led to warnings that overcrowded prisons will be left “one major event away from disaster”.
Announcing a U-turn on the early release scheme after weeks of intense pressure, Burnham said he understood “how strongly people feel about this issue”.
Campaigners welcome plan to bring IPP sentences to a close but say the move is long overdue
Campaigners have hailed Andy Burnham’s pledge to bring an end to indefinite jail terms as “a day that thousands of families have spent years fighting for”.
The prime minister has said he will “end the injustice” of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences during this parliament, meaning people will no longer be trapped indefinitely under a sentence abolished more than a decade ago.
Labour has promised a ‘fundamental rewiring’ of power. But some areas are years into their devolution journey while others scramble to get started
Apart from the joyous hyperactivity that comes with suddenly making it to No 10, there are good reasons why Andy Burnham seems to be a prime minister in a hurry. If he decides that his first term is going to run to its maximum length, he has three years, which is a maddening time-frame: too long for him to just tinker here and there, set out his long-term vision and then ask the electorate for permission to do more, but probably too short to start and finish many of his key projects. His chosen solution, it seems, is a mixture of the strategies he would use for each approach, which includes running at some issues at breakneck pace.
So it is with his specialist subject: devolution for England. The huge changes now afoot actually began under Keir Starmer, with the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act passed earlier this year. Areas that previously had two tiers of local government will see them replaced with new unitary councils. But the most historic move centres on regional mayors – what the government calls “strategic authorities” – and a shift that the Whitehall PR machine is hyping up as a “fundamental rewiring of the way our country works, surrendering power that for too long has been held in Westminster and Whitehall”. In principle, this is unquestionably worth celebrating. But it also gives rise to a whole range of increasingly urgent and awkward questions.
PM says anyone convicted of unlawful killing, including all forms of manslaughter, will be excluded from the scheme
PC Andrew Harper’s killers will remain behind bars after Andy Burnham announced changes to the early release scheme aimed at easing prison overcrowding, saying he understood “how strongly people feel about this issue”.
The prime minister said anyone convicted of unlawful killing, including all forms of manslaughter, would be excluded from the scheme, which would have made two of the officer’s killers eligible for early release. It comes after Burnham previously ordered a review of plans for the early release of thousands of killers, rapists and sex offenders from prison in September.
PM says anyone convicted of unlawful killing, including all forms of manslaughter, will be excluded from the scheme
PC Andrew Harper’s killers will remain behind bars after Andy Burnham announced changes to the early release scheme aimed at easing prison overcrowding, saying he understood “how strongly people feel about this issue”.
The prime minister said anyone convicted of unlawful killing, including all forms of manslaughter, would be excluded from the scheme, which would have made two of the officer’s killers eligible for early release. It comes after Burnham previously ordered a review of plans for the early release of thousands of killers, rapists and sex offenders from prison in September.
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