Regulations to allow the emergency early release of prisoners will come into force after MSPs backed the Scottish government’s plan to ease pressure on the country’s jails.
Around 514 prisoners will be released in four waves, starting at the end of this month.
Only inmates serving short sentences of under four years who have 180 days or less left to serve will be considered for release.
Prisoners serving life sentences, or those who are currently behind bars for sexual, domestic abuse or terror-based offences, will automatically be excluded from the scheme.
Prison governors will also have the power to veto the release of any inmate they deem an “immediate risk” to a specific individual or group.
Timescales: • Tranche one: Those with less than 45 days left to serve will be released on 26 and 27 June. • Tranche two: Those with 45-89 days left to serve will be released on 3 and 4 July. • Tranche three: Those with 90-134 days left to serve will be released on 10 and 11 July. • Tranche four: Those with 135-180 days left to serve will be released 17 and 18 July.
Eligible prisoners whose release is not completed within the appropriate tranche will be set free as soon “as is practicable” before the process end date of 25 July.
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The move comes amid a spike in prison population numbers, which Justice Secretary Angela Constance said is putting the estate at “critical risk”.
Ms Constance told Holyrood in May that the country’s prison population had increased sharply by around 400 in the space of two months, and 13% since the beginning of 2023.
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On 16 May it was sitting at 8,348, one of the highest levels ever recorded in Scotland. It has since dropped to 8,294 – which is still above the target operating capacity of 8,007.
After being backed by MSPs on Wednesday, from 13 June the Scottish government will be able to bring into force section 11 of the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act 2023, which provides ministers with the power to release prisoners in emergency situations.
Image: Angela Constance, Scotland’s justice secretary. Pic: PA
Following Scottish parliament approval, Ms Constance said: “Immediate and urgent action is needed to deal with the significant recent rise in the prison population.
“The same challenges in prisons are faced across the UK and the UK government has taken similar action in England and Wales.
“Through this emergency early release plan, backed by parliament, we are responding to this critical situation and ensuring the safety and welfare of staff and prisoners.
“Protecting the public remains my absolute priority, which is why there are significant and robust safeguards in place and only those due to be released in the next short while are eligible.
“Releases will also be completed in tranches so the necessary support can be provided to safely resettle released prisoners in their communities.”
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Victim Support Scotland has previously raised concerns about how victims will be notified.
Those not registered with the victim notification scheme will reportedly have to contact one of four support organisations to find out if the offender in their case is among those being released early.
Scottish Tory justice spokesperson Russell Findlay said: “Many victims of serious crimes will first hear about this on tonight’s news. This will cause fear and anxiety.
“Prisoners being set free will have committed serious crimes, including violence.”
Ms Constance said the Scottish government is working with victim support organisations to ensure information and help is available where needed.
The first thing you notice when immigration officers stop a possible illegal moped delivery driver is the speed in which the suspect quickly taps on their mobile.
“We’re in their WhatsApp groups – they’ll be telling thousands now that we’re here… so our cover is blown,” the lead immigration officer tells me.
“It’s like a constant game of cat and mouse.”
Twelve Immigration Enforcement officers, part of the Home Office, are joining colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police in a crackdown on road offences and migrants working illegally.
The West of England and Wales has seen the highest number of arrests over the last year for illegal workers outside of London.
“It is a problem… we’re tackling it,” Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says. He covers all the devolved nations.
“This is just one of the operations going on around the country, every day of the week, every month of the year.”
Image: Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says his team are attempting to tackle the issue
Just outside the Cabot Circus shopping complex, we stop a young Albanian man who arrived in the UK on the back of a truck.
He’s on an expensive and fast-looking e-bike, with a new-looking Just Eat delivery bag.
He says he just uses it for “groceries” – but the officer isn’t buying it. He’s arrested, but then bailed instantly.
We don’t know the specifics of his case, but one officer tells me this suspected offence won’t count against his asylum claim.
Such is the scale of the problem – the backlog, loopholes and the complexity of cases – that trying to keep on top of it feels impossible.
This is one of many raids happening across the UK as part of what the government says is a “blitz” targeting illegal working hotspots.
Angela Eagle, the border security and asylum minister, joins the team for an hour at one of Bristol’sretail parks, scattered with fast food chains and, therefore, delivery bikes.
Image: Border security and asylum minister, Angela Eagle, speaks to Sky News
She says arrests for illegal working are up over the last year by 51% from the year before, to more than 7,000.
“If we find you working, you can lose access to the hotel or the support you have [been] given under false pretences,” she said.
“We are cracking down on that abuse, and we intend to keep doing so.”
There are reports that asylum seekers can rent legitimate delivery-driver accounts within hours of arriving in the country – skipping employment legality checks.
Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat all told Sky News they’re continuing to strengthen the technology they use to remove anyone working illegally.
But a new Border Security Bill, working its way through Parliament, could see companies fined £60,000 for each illegal worker discovered, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to five years.
“I had them all in to see me last week and I told them in no uncertain terms that we take a very tough line on this kind of abuse and they’ve got to change their systems so they can drive it out and off their platforms,” the minister tells me.
For some of those who arrive, a bike and a phone provide a way to repay debts to gang masters.
There were eight arrests today in Bristol, one or two taken into custody, but it was 12 hours of hard work by a dozen immigration officers and the support of the police.
As two mopeds are pushed onto a low-loader, you can’t help but feel, despite the best intentions, that at the moment, this is a losing battle.
The officers who confronted the Southport killer have described, for the first time publicly, how they disarmed him – as they joined a list of 70 officers nominated for a police bravery award.
Sergeant Greg Gillespie, 42, PC Luke Holden, 31, and PCSO Tim Parry, 32, were the first to arrive as Axel Rudakubana rampaged with a knife through a holiday dance school last summer.
Speaking to Sky Newsabout what they saw when arriving at the scene, Sgt Gillespie said: “There was maybe 20 or 25 adults and all of them were looking at me, all of them have this look of terror and fear, panic on their faces and I knew whatever it was we were turning up to was really, really bad.”
His colleagues drove fast from Southport police station and were thirty seconds or so behind Sgt Gillespie.
Image: PC Luke Holden (left), PCSO Tim Parry (centre), Sgt Greg Gillespie (right) nominated for the police bravery awards
PC Holden said he saw “a large puddle of blood on the floor outside the door” and said Sgt Gillespie “just looked at me” and asked if he was ready.
“That was it, there was no conversation. There was nothing else going on. He said, ‘Are you ready?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, let’s go’.”
PCSO Parry, who doesn’t carry a baton or pepper spray like his colleagues, went to the back of the building to stop people from entering, help anyone who needed it, and get information on the number of suspects inside.
He said: “It was a horrific scene to really go into because I was so unprepared with the equipment I had.”
Sgt Gillespie and PC Holden identified the suspect at the top of the stairs, a bloodied knife in his hand, and walked towards him shoulder to shoulder.
“I saw him, made eye contact with him, saw his facial expression, saw his body language and the way he moved himself into a position at the top of the stairs, showing us he had a knife,” Sgt Gillespie said.
“He was fronting us, like he was saying, ‘I’ve got a knife, what are you going to do about it?’
“And I think the second he realised he was looking at two people who weren’t scared of him, who were going to attack him, all that bravery that he must have summoned up to attack defenceless children, he lost that straightaway, and he threw down the knife.”
In January, Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the attack, admitted the murders of seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King, aged six and Alice da Silva Aguiar, who was nine, as well 10 charges of attempted murder, as well as possessing terrorist material and production of the biological toxin, ricin.
Image: A machete was also found at Rudakubana’s home. Pic: Merseyside Police
Dozens nominated for bravery awards
The Merseyside trio are among 70 officers from around England and Wales who have been nominated for tonight’s Police Federation national bravery awards.
They include two sergeants from Sussex who swam to the rescue of a vulnerable teenager struggling to stay afloat at night off Brighton beach.
Image: Footage of Sergeant Craig Lees and Sergeant Matthew Seekings rescuing a woman from the sea in Brighton. Pic: Sussex police
Police with torches had located her in the sea fifty metres from the shore, but a lifeline they threw to her didn’t reach.
Sergeant Craig Lees said: “We could see that she was starting to struggle with the cold and tide, and she began to dip under the water. We knew we needed to do something, and that was that we needed to get into the water and swim out to her.”
His colleague and friend Sergeant Matthew Seekings said: “I don’t think it’s in the blood of any police officer to watch somebody at risk or somebody needing help and not do something.
“When you’re in the sea, it’s pitch black, you don’t even know where the bottom is, it’s terrifying, and I can only imagine how the female was feeling.”
Image: Sergeant Craig Lees and Sergeant Matthew Seekings who are nominated for a bravery award. Pic: Sussex police
Battling their own fatigue, the two officers managed to get the girl to shore, where colleagues and paramedics were waiting to take over.
In Devizes, Wiltshire, PC Nicola Crabbe was called to a town centre fight between two men, one of whom had a knife.
Image: PC Nicola Crabbe from Wiltshire police who is nominated for a police bravery award
‘Just saturated in blood’
“They were grappling, and they were just saturated in blood,” said PC Crabbe, who confronted the man she thought was the knifeman.
“I was in the middle of the road when I grabbed hold of him, and there was a member of the public just there, and that’s when he explained to me that I had the wrong person.”
Image: CCTV image of PC Nicola Crabbe from Wiltshire police dealing with a fight in Devizes. Pic: Wiltshire police
Armed only with a baton and Pava pepper spray, she grappled with the suspect, trying to find his knife.
She said: “At one point he grabbed my hair and kind of dragged me around a bit, so I Pava’d him which just had no effect at all.”
PC Crabbe managed to restrain the knifeman until colleagues arrived and arrested him.
The full list of award winners will be announced on Thursday night during a dinner at a west London hotel.
A group of Labour MPs has urged Sir Keir Starmer to do more to tackle the rising cost of living amid fears the party could lose the next election to Reform.
The MPs are launching a new splinter group, the living standards coalition, to shift the focus to everyday concerns such as food, energy bills and housing.
In a letter to the prime minister, the group’s members warned that one question would be on the mind of voters at the next election: “Did this Labour government make me better off?”
“After 14 years of living in a no-growth economy and with some of the highest bills in Europe, our constituents are struggling to make ends meet,” they said.
“More of them are turning away from democracy and towards populism as they can’t afford a decent life.”
The coalition is the latest splinter group to form since the party’s landslide election victory a year ago.
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Other groups include the Labour growth group, which focuses on delivering economic growth, and MPs in Red Wall constituencies in the North who are alive to the threat Reform poses in their seats.
While the MPs stress they are supportive of the actions the government has taken so far, the forming of a new group could be interpreted as a sign of restlessness in the parliamentary party, especially given the fallout of last week’s botched welfare vote.
In the letter, first reported by The Guardian, the MPs write: “We are here to support your efforts to go further and faster on raising living standards. We come from every corner of our party.
“To raise living standards, we support government interventions that will help to increase incomes and lower costs.
“We welcome interventions that will raise incomes. We welcome investment in labour- intensive building, education, and healthcare jobs that will raise living standards through employment. We welcome the Employment Rights Bill that will get wages rising.”
They added: “We know that some will try to stop us raising living standards.
“They will try to block us from building the affordable housing and windfarms we need to get bills down. They oppose the way we have raised revenue from the very wealthiest to invest in childcare and our NHS.
“We are glad you are keeping this government’s focus on raising living standards. We stand in support of you. It is the most important issue to our constituents and the country.”