PRT comment: Announcement on review of Sentencing Act release points

Commenting on the government’s announcement that it will exclude people convicted of rape and serious child sex offenders from the release provisions in the Sentencing Act 2026, Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“The government was right to listen to the concerns of victims, but it is between a rock and a hard place. The more exclusions it adds the fewer prison places it saves, making the return of the prison capacity crisis in the coming months ever more likely. The Sentencing Act, which was scrutinised and passed by Parliament, was designed to ensure use of custody could be bought to a sustainable level. We have yet to see an impact assessment of the new policy, but our analysis suggests that around 10,000 people in prison will come under the scope of the exclusions. That is a sizeable number of people who will now spend longer in prison than was intended by the legislation.”