PC Harper's killers excluded from early release as Burnham changes scheme

PC Andrew Harper was 28 when he was dragged along a road by a vehicle while responding to a quad bike theft in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in August 2019. His killers, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, were sentenced to 13 years for manslaughter, and under the government's early release scheme they could have become eligible for release halfway through their sentences. On Sunday, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced that anyone convicted of unlawful killing, including all forms of manslaughter, will be excluded from that scheme.

The change follows months of campaigning by Harper's family and former colleagues, and a wider backlash over the scope of the early release scheme introduced to ease prison overcrowding. Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Burnham said: "I heard, obviously, what Andrew Harper's family were saying, I mean, who couldn't? Nobody would want a position to arise where those guilty of killing a police officer are let out early from prison."

The prime minister said the exemption also covers indecent assault offences and death by dangerous driving, and that historic child sex offences and causing or allowing the death of a child will be excluded as well. He said the changes would mean "hundreds" more people stay in prison, adding to pressure on a system that is more than 97% full in England and Wales.

To create additional space, Burnham said the government will deport foreign prisoners and release some inmates serving indefinite sentences. He confirmed that Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences, which were available between 2005 and 2012, will be ended through legislation by the end of this Parliament. According to Ministry of Justice data, 2,271 people were serving IPP sentences as of June, of whom 856 had never been released because the Parole Board considered it unsafe.

Burnham conceded that some of those IPP offenders will "pose a risk to communities" and said a cross-party oversight group would be established. He also said the government will implement powers early next year to deport some foreign criminals immediately after sentencing, and that work has begun to create more cells by adapting existing prison space.

Harper's mother, Debbie Adlam, told BBC Breakfast she was "glad and really grateful" for the decision but described a "mixed bag of emotions". "On the one hand we are glad, but we've been put through the mill and we are only back at where we were to start with," she said. "I worry immensely for those it doesn't happen for, and I think realistically the overall system has left some huge gaps still."

Thames Valley Police Chief Constable Jason Hogg said the announcement would be "welcomed by many across policing and our communities", and that he hoped it would bring reassurance to Harper's family and other victims. Conservative shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy accused Labour of avoiding parliamentary scrutiny and called for emergency legislation. The justice secretary is expected to give a more precise figure for the number affected when he makes a statement in Parliament on Tuesday.