Prime Minister Andy Burnham has ordered an urgent review of prison case files to identify grooming gang members who could be freed early under the government's release scheme, after it emerged that men convicted of indecent assault were not covered by the exclusions announced earlier this week.
The prime minister's spokesperson said Burnham had asked the Ministry of Justice to "conduct an in-depth review of cases to ensure that grooming cases were identified", adding: "This work is happening urgently."
"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."
The intervention followed a letter from Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who pointed out that indecent assault does not appear on the list of offences the government said would be barred from the 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 excluded.
At this stage, it is understood the review will only seek to identify offenders who might be released early. The government has not confirmed whether it will lead to any releases being prevented, nor what legal mechanism would be used to hold back a prisoner whose offence is not on the statutory exclusion list.
The gap arises from a change in the law rather than a drafting error. Much of the offending in historical grooming cases took place before the Sexual Offences Act 2003, and was therefore prosecuted as indecent assault under sections 14 and 15 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956. Neither section appears in the government's published exclusions, meaning eligibility turns on the legal label attached to a conviction rather than the conduct behind it.
Badenoch said many cases of child sexual abuse committed before 2004 were charged that way, "including Rotherham and Rochdale". She called the position a "betrayal of victims" and urged Burnham to publish the full list of offences that remain eligible.
"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."
Responding to Thursday's announcement, she described it as "another U-turn secured" and "another review from Burnham following my letter".
The government plans to release about 5,000 offenders in England and Wales ahead of schedule to ease pressure on overcrowded jails, down from around 6,000 before the plans were revised. Releases will take place in 10 batches from October, beginning with prisoners serving sentences of fewer than 575 days and extending to those jailed for 12 years or more, who become eligible in June 2027. The number freed in each batch will depend on the prison population at the time.
Burnham paused the scheme after taking office in July and this week confirmed that rape, serious child sexual and grooming offences would be barred. He said he had wanted to exempt more offenders but that doing so was not possible without the prison system collapsing and putting the public at "much greater risk". On 3 August the prison population in England and Wales stood at 86,495, about 97% of useable capacity.
Prisoners who are not excluded could be freed after serving a third of their custodial sentence, rather than 40% or 50%.
Pressure is also coming from the family of PC Andrew Harper, who was killed in 2019 when he was dragged behind a car by teenagers fleeing a quad bike theft in Berkshire. His mother said she was "devastated" that two of the men jailed over his death remain eligible.
Justice Secretary Alex Norris apologised to affected families earlier this week, saying they were "carrying the can from previous failures".
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