The Prime Minister has ordered that rape, serious child sex and other grooming offences will be barred from upcoming changes to prison sentences, protecting the public from these dangerous criminals.

This follows the Prime Minister halting planned changes to sentencing and demanding the policy be reconsidered within days of coming into office.

After listening to victims’ concerns, rape and serious child sex offences, including vile grooming gang offences, will now be blocked from the upcoming sentencing changes, meaning these dangerous criminals will see no change to their custodial sentence and stay locked up for longer.

The changes mean rape and child sexual offences will be added to the exclusions that were already in place for 18,000 offenders, including those who have been found by a court to be the most dangerous or anyone serving a life sentence.

The Prime Minister wanted to go even further, and he recognises that people will be worried about other offenders being released. The significant changes he is making go as far as possible without putting the prison system at risk of collapse, which would put the public at greater risk.

The Prime Minister has insisted that offenders face tough new surveillance after leaving prison. There will be a presumption that all offenders are tagged, tougher periods of supervision and robust new rules, including restriction zones for offenders. He has also been clear that victims must be placed at the heart of the justice system, announcing a new package of victim support – backed by £10 million – to provide better, trauma-informed contact. This is alongside a new national helpline and efforts to contact all affected victims to offer information and support.

A lack of investment in the prisons estate for over a decade has led to a situation where adult male prisons are now at 98% capacity. That’s why the Government will take decisive action to fix the broken prison system, with prison building moving at the fastest rate since the Victoria era, with 14,000 new prison places expected by 2031.

The Prime Minister has also asked the Justice Secretary to move rapidly on scoping and accelerating the next generation of prisons, providing a long-term shift in capacity to resolve this crisis. He has also asked the Justice Secretary to look at how we can remove foreign offenders from our prisoners faster and in greater numbers, review outdated Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences and free up space in the women’s prison estate.

Ministers are also delaying wider releases from prison under the Sentencing Act from September to October, giving probation staff have time to plan for releases and that victims can have a say in the restrictions placed on offenders.

The Sentencing Act will restore order to the prison system and make sure we have cells available for dangerous criminals. This will put an end to the use of repeated early release schemes prior to July 2024, which were emergency, temporary measures forced upon successive governments because of repeated capacity crises.

The changes also introduce a new progression model which will end automatic release for badly behaved offenders. Those who break the rules or are violent behind bars face spending 100% of their sentence locked up.

To read the press release in full go to https://www.gov.uk/government/news/rape-serious-child-sex-and-grooming-offences-barred-from-sentencing-changes

August 5, 2026