Domestic Abuse: Prisoners' Release

Ministry of Justice written question – answered at on 23 May 2025.

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Photo of Sarah Gibson Sarah Gibson Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Business)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people who (a) have been convicted of offences related to domestic abuse in Wiltshire and (b) may be eligible for early release; and what steps her Department is taking to safeguard (i) victims and (ii) victims' families when domestic abusers are released early.

Photo of Sarah Gibson Sarah Gibson Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Business)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what mechanisms are in place to monitor compliance with (a) licence conditions and (b) restraining orders for early-released offenders in Wiltshire; and what steps she takes to respond to breaches.

Photo of Sarah Gibson Sarah Gibson Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Business)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of early release schemes on the safety of domestic abuse survivors in Wiltshire.

Photo of Nicholas Dakin Nicholas Dakin Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice

This Government inherited prisons days from collapse. We had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe.

Eligibility under SDS40 is determined by law and we exempted a number of offences from the measure. Unlike the previous Government’s ECSL scheme, we excluded certain offences connected to domestic abuse. SDS40 offence exclusions include specified offences linked to domestic abuse irrespective of sentence length including stalking, coercive or controlling behaviour and non-fatal strangulation. Our exclusions send a very clear message about how seriously domestic abuse is taken by this Government, which was elected on a landmark pledge to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade. Tackling domestic abuse is a core part of this mission.

However, there is no one offence for domestic abuse, meaning it was not possible to exempt all domestic abusers.

To safeguard victims and their families, SDS40 was introduced with an eight-week implementation period, clear offence-based exclusions, and extensive coordination across the Criminal Justice System. Offenders released under SDS40 are subject to strict licence conditions and close supervision by probation services. Any breach of these conditions can result in immediate recall to custody. We will also recruit a further 1,300 trainee probation officers by March 2026 to ensure probation has the right resource to supervise high risk offenders and meet the growing demands of our justice system.

We have published SDS40 release data as part of the quarterly Offender Management Statistics, in line with the Lord Chancellor’s commitment to transparency: Standard Determinate Sentence (SDS40) release data - GOV.UK.

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