I am pleased that Andy Burnham has paused the plans to release some prisoners early, in September. The new Prime Minister has said that there will be an urgent review of the policy and that no prisoners will be released until this is carried out.

When I voted for the Sentencing Act last year, I was assured that criminals, like those convicted of sexual offences, would not be included in an early release scheme. I wrote to the previous Ministry of Justice outlining my deep concerns over this.

I fully understand why this issue causes such concern. Victims of rape, child sexual abuse, grooming offences and other serious crimes have endured immense trauma, and they deserve confidence that the criminal justice system puts their safety and the protection of the public first.

Our prison system is in crisis, driven by decades of policies that favour long sentencing over rehabilitation, when in many cases prison is just not suitable. We’ve had decades of underfunding, the buildings are in a state of disrepair with a historic overcrowding crisis, with many facilities operating at over 97% capacity.

72% of female prison admissions were for non-violent crimes and for these women prison can create more problems than it solves. The same can be said for the thousands of people who are in custody who are neurodivergent, or have mental ill health and addictions.

We need to urgently tackle the prison crisis. Overcrowding leads to more violence and attacks on staff but also leaves us vulnerable to having no where to put violent criminals who have just offended.

We need to get this right to ensure victim and public safety and that the system has the resources needed to keep people safe