Andy Burnham approved the managed early release scheme after pausing it when criticism mounted, and the policy includes some killers. Among those eligible are two people convicted of the manslaughter of PC Andrew Harper, making the Andrew Harper death part of the hardest consequences of the decision.
Burnham said some prisoners would be released a third into their sentences. He also said he had pushed the plan to the limits of what was possible and had not wanted to take the decision.
Summer letters to Harper
Victims and families began receiving letters in the summer of 2024, including Harper’s widow. They were told the early release of perpetrators was moving ahead under a managed scheme, not as an emergency step.
Burnham excluded people convicted of rape, serious child sexual offences and grooming from the scheme. Even with those exclusions, some killers remain eligible, including the two people convicted in connection with PC Andrew Harper.
Sentencing Act in September
The scheme was the designed effect of the Sentencing Act, which was due to come into effect in September. Burnham said there was nothing more he could have asked for without risking the prison system collapsing within months.
That left victims with a policy that narrowed some offences out of reach while still allowing early release for a limited group of killers. For families linked to the Andrew Harper death, the practical issue is that the scheme can still reach offenders before they serve the full term imposed in court.
The remaining question is which specific offenders convicted in connection with PC Andrew Harper are eligible for early release. The government has already set the scheme in motion, and the consequences now fall on the families who received those letters first.
