Downing Street admits it cannot block early release of PC Harper's killers

The Government has conceded it lacks the power to prevent the early release of the men who killed PC Andrew Harper, despite public pressure to intervene.

Downing Street confirmed the position after multiple outlets reported the Prime Minister faces calls to change the automatic early release scheme. The Guardian reports that Andy Burnham is being urged not to alter the scheme specifically to stop the killers' release, while also asking what powers he might hold to block it. The Independent states flatly that Number Ten admits it can't stop the release.

The machinery here is the automatic early release scheme itself - a standing rule that applies to sentences meeting certain criteria, not a decision made afresh in each case. Once a sentence falls within the scheme's terms, ministers hold no discretion to carve out exceptions for individual offenders, however notorious. The scheme was designed to relieve prison capacity without requiring ministerial judgement on each name. That design now delivers a consequence the Government evidently dislikes but can't override without changing the rule for everyone.

The test arrives when the release date does. If the men walk free on schedule, the scheme worked as written. If the Government finds a mechanism to delay them, it will have discovered a discretion it currently says it doesn't hold.