Andy Burnham has stated he is "increasingly confident" that those convicted of killing Pc Andrew Harper will serve their full terms without being released early.
It comes as the prime minister pledged to resolve the "long-running injustice" of indefinite prison terms, combining efforts to ease overcrowding in jails with measures preventing PC Andrew Harper’s killers from leaving prison prematurely.
Writing on Facebook, Mr Burnham said he called on justice secretary Alex Norris to expedite proposals for creating more headroom across the prison estate.
Here we look at the key questions.
How did we get here?
Sir Keir Starmer’s government passed the Sentencing Act, paving the way for criminals to be released after serving as little as a third of their custodial term if they are jailed for less than four years.
For those with terms of longer than four years, many could be released at the halfway point in their sentence, rather than after two-thirds.
The changes are being phased in from later this year as part of the plan to ease a crisis in prison places. Labour blames the Tories for not building enough new cells during their 14 years in power.
How do Pc Andrew Harper’s killers fit in?
The 28-year-old police officer sustained fatal injuries after being dragged down a country road by three teenagers fleeing the scene of a burglary in a car in 2019.
The driver of the car, Henry Long, was not eligible for inclusion in the early-release scheme because he had received an extended sentence of 16 years, after the judge deemed him “dangerous”.
That remains the case, and he will be in prison until at least 2030 when he becomes eligible for consideration by the Parole Board for release.
But his accomplices, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, received standard determinate sentences for manslaughter.
They were each jailed for 13 years and were initially due to be released automatically after serving two-thirds, meaning they would have been behind bars until about 2028, but under the Sentencing Act’s changes they would be eligible next year.
What has Andy Burnham’s government done?
In the face of a public outcry over the potential early release of two of the police officer’s killers, Mr Burnham ordered a review of the measures.
Prisoners serving sentences for rape or child sex offences were exempted from the changes, and Mr Burnham pushed back the date when the first early releases would begin, from September to October, to give the Probation Service more time to prepare.
But despite the furore over Pc Harper’s killers prompting the review, the changes did nothing to alter their position.
What did Mr Burnham say?
The prime minister said he had “pushed to the very limits of what is possible to do” in making the change, and “I know I can look people in the eye and say to them there is nothing more I could have asked for without risking the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing within months”.
He began his holiday as the changes were announced, leaving his ministers facing a week of difficult questions.
What has happened now?
Having returned from his overseas summer holiday, Mr Burnham has ordered justice secretary Alex Norris to find a way to prevent the early release of Pc Harper’s killers.
How could that be done?
Downing Street has been clear that it would not be possible to narrowly exempt the killers of police officers from the early release provisions, meaning that Mr Norris may be forced to ensure all offenders convicted of manslaughter – or those with sentences of, for example, 10 years or more – are not included in the measures.
Mr Norris will be forced to strike a balance, knowing that the wider the exemption is drawn, fewer prisoners will be released early and more pressure will be placed on jails in England and Wales.
The latest figures show there were 1,015 people in prison for manslaughter as of June 2026, made up of 950 males and 65 females.
How could prison capacity be freed up?
One idea that has been considered by ministers is releasing more female prisoners – about 70% of the approximately 3,650 women in custody are serving sentences for non-violent offending – in order to repurpose their prisons to hold male offenders.
There are 12 women’s prisons in operation in England and Wales.
On average, a woman goes to prison for just over 12 months, according to Ministry of Justice data.
Are any other ideas being considered by Mr Norris?
There are about 10,000 foreign national offenders in prisons in England and Wales. The Government could seek to speed up the rate at which they are deported, freeing up cells.
What else?
Mr Burnham wants to end the “long-running injustice” faced by inmates still serving indeterminate sentences of imprisonment for public protection (IPP), which were scrapped in 2012.
More than 2,000 people are still in prison serving an IPP sentence.
A complex resentencing exercise would be needed to reduce the IPP prison population.
