PRESS RELEASE : Process activated to manage prisoner movements [August 2024]

The press release issued by the Ministry of Justice on 19 August 2024.

A temporary measure to manage pressures in prisons in the north of England has been reactivated, following longstanding capacity failures and recent outbreaks of far-right disorder.

In recent weeks, prisons in the north of England have seen hundreds of people enter the prison estate, after the Government took decisive action to tackle violent thuggery on our streets. This has exacerbated longstanding capacity issues in our prisons, which have been operating at critical levels for the last several years, often with under 1% capacity.

To manage these pressures, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has reactivated an existing contingency mechanism, Operation Early Dawn, providing extra oversight of prisoner transfers between the police, courts and custody.

This means that offenders will be summoned to a magistrates’ court only when it is confirmed that a cell in the prison estate is ready for them, should they be remanded into custody. They will be held in a police station until they are summoned to court.

The activation of Operation Early Dawn helps to manage the prison capacity pressure felt in the short-term in a small number of regions. This action has been taken to ensure that we always have enough prison places to lock up those who choose to break the law.

Prisons and Probation Minister, Lord Timpson, said: 

We inherited a justice system in crisis and exposed to shocks. As a result, we have been forced into making difficult but necessary decisions to keep it operating.

However, thanks to the hard work of our dedicated staff and partners, we have brought forward additional prison places and now introduced Operation Early Dawn to manage the pressure felt in some parts of the country.

The police have reassured the public that this will not impact their ability to arrest criminals, and anyone who poses a risk to the public will not be bailed.

National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Custody, Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp, said: 

We are working closely with criminal justice system partners to manage demand in the system and ensure that the public are safe.

Policing will continue to arrest anyone that they need to in order to keep the public safe, including policing protests and events and ensuring that people are arrested as expected.

The Government has already brought forward a number of measures to increase capacity as a result of violent disorder, making hundreds of prison places available including a new houseblock at HMP Stocken, the repurposed HMP Cookham Wood, and accelerated maintenance work in other prisons.

In the first week of forming a new Government, action was also taken to address the longstanding capacity issues in our prisons, announcing difficult but necessary changes to certain prison sentences.

These changes will come into to force in early September, giving the Probation Service the time they need to safely release offenders, making such each person has somewhere to live once they leave prison and support into work.

Operation Early Dawn involves an operational assessment being made each morning and throughout the day by the Prison Service, courts and police on which defendants can be transferred from police cells and taken to courts to ensure there is a safe and secure location if a defendant is remanded to custody.

When previously operated, Operation Early Dawn has helped to minimise disruption to bail hearings and manage the movement of prisoners across the justice estate.

Operation Early Dawn is expected to be implemented to address capacity concerns in the following areas:

• North East and Yorkshire
• Cumbria and Lancashire
• Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire
• East and West Midlands

The government will keep this measure under constant review and will activate or deactivate as necessary. Ongoing trials in the Crown Court will not be directly impacted and prisoners being held for Crown Court hearings will be brought to court and taken back to prison as usual.

Notes to Editors

As part of a long-term plan to address the capacity crisis the government is temporarily reducing the proportion of certain custodial sentences served in prison from 50% to 40%. These measures, which come into force in September and October, will include important safeguards and exemptions to keep the public safe and clear release plans to manage them safely in the community.

Sentences for terrorism, sex offences, and serious violent offences of four years or more, will be automatically excluded, and, in an important distinction from the End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme, the early release of offenders in prison for domestic abuse-connected crimes will also be excluded. This includes:

• stalking offences
• controlling or coercive behaviours in an intimate or family relationship
• non-fatal strangulation and suffocation
• breach of restraining order, non-molestation order, and domestic abuse protection order

Anyone released will be strictly monitored on licence by the Probation Service through measures which can include electronic tagging and curfews. They face being recalled to prison if they breach their licence conditions.

The new rules will also not apply to most serious offenders, who already either spend two-thirds of their sentence behind bars or have their release determined by the Parole Board.

Alongside the changes to early release the Government will build the prisons the country needs, review how sentencing and criminal justice works, and recruit an additional thousand probation officers.