The Prime Minister has asked the Justice Secretary to "work through further options" aimed at preventing the early release of two men convicted of the manslaughter of PC Andrew Harper, Downing Street said on Monday.
The move follows intense public pressure from the family of PC Harper, police representatives and a petition that has attracted more than 880,000 signatures calling for the men to remain in custody. The two offenders, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, were each given 13‑year sentences after being convicted of manslaughter in 2020 and are currently scheduled to be released at the halfway point of their terms in January under the existing early release arrangements.
Government response and limits
Number 10 reiterated that it is not possible to single out "one or two offenders" within the wider manslaughter category for exemption from the scheme, but said the Prime Minister had asked the Justice Secretary, Alex Norris, to look at ways to keep "a greater number of the most serious offenders" in prison.
"The Prime Minister has asked the Justice Secretary to work through further options to keep a greater number of the most serious offenders in prison, including the killers of Pc Harper," a Government spokesperson said.
Downing Street previously indicated it had already made targeted exemptions to the early release programme to avoid the prison system becoming over‑stretched. It said last week that the Prime Minister had "pushed to the very limits of what is possible to do without risking the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing" when agreeing to exclude certain categories of offender.
Scale of the planned changes
The Government expects some 5,000 people to be released early under the revised sentencing arrangements, a reduction from an earlier estimate of 6,000 after exemptions were announced. The exemptions so far apply to those convicted of rape, serious child sexual offences and certain grooming crimes, the Government said.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Original expected early releases | 6,000 |
| Expected early releases after exemptions | 5,000 |
| Sentence for Cole and Bowers | 13 years |
| Petition signatures | ~880,000 |
Pressure from bereaved family and policing bodies
The case has attracted sustained attention since PC Harper, of Thames Valley Police, was fatally injured after becoming caught in a strap attached to the back of a vehicle as those responsible fled the scene of a quad‑bike theft in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in 2019. Two of the three people convicted of manslaughter in 2020 are due to be released at the halfway point of their 13‑year tariffs under the current rules.
Campaigners and the family have argued that the nature of the crime and the status of the victim as an emergency worker make the scheduled releases unacceptable. Number 10 has warned, however, that "manslaughter of an emergency worker" is not a standalone offence within law and therefore cannot be singled out for automatic exclusion without wider changes to sentencing categories.
- Government line: seek broader measures to retain more of the most serious offenders while avoiding prison capacity collapse.
- Public reaction: a large petition and vocal calls from family and police for the two men to remain in custody.
- Legal constraint: Downing Street says individual exemptions within manslaughter are not straightforward under current law.
The Justice Secretary is now expected to review the options available. Any significant policy change would have to balance the immediate public and political pressure against operational limits in the prison estate and legal constraints on categorising offences for exemption.
Officials have not provided a timetable for the Justice Secretary's work or indicated what legislative or administrative steps might follow. The Government did not say whether the forthcoming review could alter the scheduled January release date for the two men.
