We’re here around the clock to help you take the first step toward resolving your legal issue. Reach out anytime for a free initial consultation.
Let us know a convenient time and we’ll get in touch—no waiting on hold.
On 1 October 2026, the point at which most adults serving standard determinate sentences in England and Wales leave prison moved to one third of the sentence. For certain offences, prisoners who would have served two thirds will now generally be released at the halfway point instead.
The detail is messier, and it is the detail that decides when someone actually walks out. The change reaches existing prisoners in ten stages running until June 2027, home detention curfew has been withdrawn for most adults, and a statutory instrument now lists 71 entries of offences that get no early release at all.
The question we hear most from families is simple: when is he coming home? This guide answers it as precisely as the law allows, then deals with the part most coverage skips: who was left out of the early release scheme, and why that matters long before anyone is sentenced. It is written for families, for anyone facing a prison sentence, and for those advising them.
Most people given prison sentences do not serve the whole term inside. They are automatically released partway through and serve the rest on licence, supervised by the Probation Service, with the risk of recall if they breach their conditions. Release in England and Wales is governed by statute, mainly Chapter 6 of Part 12 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
The Sentencing Act 2026 moved that line for the most common type of sentence.
| Sentence | Before | From 1 October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Most standard determinate sentences (s.244 Criminal Justice Act 2003) | 40% or halfway point | One third |
| Serious violent offences and sexual offences (s.244ZA) | Two thirds | One half |
| Any sentence for an excluded offence | Unchanged | Unchanged |
| Youth sentences (s.250 Sentencing Code) | Unchanged | Unchanged |
| Extended sentences, life terms, IPP | Unchanged | Unchanged |
The 40% figure was SDS40, the emergency measure introduced in late 2024 to stop the prisons running out of room. Section 23(10) revokes the order that created it, except for youth sentences, where regulation 6 keeps it alive.
The sentence itself is no shorter, only the part served inside. The balance is served on licence and can be served in custody on recall.
The model comes from David Gauke's Independent Sentencing Review in 2025, which proposed release at one third for prisoners who engaged with the regime. The Bill received Royal Assent on 22 January 2026.
The driver is the prison population. Prisons in England and Wales have run at or near capacity for years, at times holding prisoners in police cells. Ministers frame the choice as earlier release for people serving sentences for less serious offences, or a criminal justice system with no prison spaces left for the courts.
The release changes were due to start in September. Over the summer, coverage of grooming gang cases and of PC Andrew Harper's killers turned it into a political crisis. The Victims' Commissioner and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner both wrote to ministers asking for a delay.
On 25 July 2026 the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, paused the policy for an urgent review. On 4 August the government announced that rape, serious child sexual offences and grooming offences would be excluded.
On 30 August it added manslaughter and every other form of unlawful killing, death by dangerous driving, causing or allowing the death of a child, and historic indecent assault. Commencement moved to 1 October.
The Justice Secretary, Alex Norris, said the first round of exclusions alone meant about 1,000 fewer prisoners would be released earlier. For affected victims, the government promised a national helpline. Victims in the victim contact scheme are being kept informed by victim liaison officers.
Regulation 5 of SI 2026/953 disapplies the change for certain offences: the new release points do not apply at all to a sentence for an offence in the Schedule. The Schedule, made under the Sentencing Act 2026, has 71 entries. In short, sentences for rape and serious child sexual offences, and for manslaughter or causing death by dangerous driving, are excluded. Those sentences keep their existing release point, so for the people serving them, nothing has changed.
Whether someone benefits depends on sentence type, offence and sentence length. The offence list is built on offences, not risk, and that produces results that surprise people.
Rape is excluded. Assault by penetration and sexual assault of an adult, under sections 2 and 3 of the 2003 Act, are not. Nor is causing sexual activity without consent. Controlling or coercive behaviour, stalking, grievous bodily harm with intent and robbery are all missing too. There is no general domestic abuse exclusion.
That gap has caused particular concern. Nicole Jacobs, one of the commissioners who wrote to ministers in July, criticised the decision not to exclude abusers, and the Shadow Justice Secretary said many violent offenders would still leave prison at one third. The Prime Minister's answer was that excluding more would have collapsed the prison system and put public safety at greater risk.
Section 23 does not touch an extended determinate sentence, a life sentence or imprisonment for public protection. For most of those prisoners, release still runs through the Parole Board, where the test is public safety rather than the calendar.
The government says more than 18,000 offenders serving these sentences were never eligible. That is what ministers mean when they say the most dangerous offenders are unaffected.
This group has had almost no attention. HMPPS has confirmed that from 2 September 2026, home detention curfew is no longer routinely available for adults. That was done by policy, not legislation: section 26 of the Act, which limits curfew release, has not been brought into force.
If a referral was not processed by 25 June 2026, or the HDC eligibility date falls after 2 September, there is no curfew release. Some eligible prisoners will now leave prison later than they were told.
People already out on a curfew licence before 1 October are treated separately. Under regulation 4, the change does not reach them until 12 October 2027.
For prisoners serving a sentence imposed before 1 October 2026 and in custody on that date, regulation 3 applies the change on a date fixed by sentence length:
| Sentence length (days) | Change applies from |
|---|---|
| Under 575 | 1 October 2026 |
| 575 to 882 | 13 October 2026 |
| 883 to 1,162 | 10 November 2026 |
| 1,163 to 1,561 | 8 December 2026 |
| 1,562 to 2,121 | 12 January 2027 |
| 2,122 to 2,758 | 9 February 2027 |
| 2,759 to 3,283 | 9 March 2027 |
| 3,284 to 3,654 | 13 April 2027 |
| 3,655 to 4,396 | 11 May 2027 |
| Over 4,396 | 8 June 2027 |
Where someone is serving concurrent sentences, the longest counts. Where they are consecutive, the aggregate counts. Either way, the length is as calculated immediately before 1 October 2026.
These are not release dates, and there is nothing to apply for: release is automatic. If a prisoner is already past the one-third point when their tranche begins, they are released that day. If not, they are released when they reach it. If the tranche date falls after the existing release date, nothing changes.
Take a four-year sentence. It falls in the 8 December 2026 tranche. Someone who has served 16 months by then should be released that day; someone who has not will be released at 16 months.
Prisons are recalculating the sentences of all eligible prisoners, earlier tranches first. Wait for the official release date, ask the prison offender manager to confirm it in writing, and then check it: calculations come from the warrant, and warrants contain errors.
The date is only half of it. Housing, work and a realistic plan for the first weeks out matter just as much, and are worth raising with the offender manager early.
The government calls this the earned progression model. Read section 23 and you will not find stages, a behaviour test or a Parole Board gateway. It changes a fraction. Most eligible prisoners will be released at the new point automatically.
The "earned" part is a power that already existed: adding days at a prison adjudication. Prisoners who break prison rules can have days added to the custodial part. The maximum per proven charge has doubled from 42 to 84 days, and there is no overall cap.
So the honest description is a lower automatic release point with a bigger penalty for misconduct. A wrong date is an arithmetic error and is challenged as one; added days are challenged through the adjudication itself.
Earlier release does not mean less control. Standard determinate sentences now have three stages: custody, a period of intensive supervision in the community, and a final period on licence without active supervision, except for higher-risk cases managed under MAPPA.
Section 27 of the Act, also in force from 1 October 2026, added four new licence conditions:
A condition can now leave decisions to a probation officer. Most people released in the tranches will also be subject to electronic monitoring, and everyone released must comply with their licence conditions until the sentence expires.
All of this lands on a Probation Service that MPs have described as already under severe strain from high workloads. Moving more people serving sentences out of prison and into the community only works if the supervision behind those conditions is real.
Recall is more costly too. Since 31 March 2026, fixed term recall for adults on standard determinate sentences lasts 56 days. It is not available at all for some, including people managed at MAPPA level 2 or 3, national security and terrorist offenders, and anyone recalled after being charged with a further offence.
More licence conditions mean more routes back into prison. A condition that clashes with work or childcare should be challenged before it is imposed, not breached afterwards.
This is the part of the reform that matters most to anyone under investigation.
Take an eight-year sentence for a serious sexual offence within the two-thirds regime. Prisoners convicted of rape are excluded, so release stays at two thirds: five years and four months in custody. Convicted of assault by penetration under section 2 instead, with the same custodial sentence, the same person would be released earlier, at four years. Sixteen months turn on which offence the prosecution chose to charge.
The pattern repeats. Manslaughter is excluded; GBH with intent is not. Meeting a child following grooming is excluded; sexual communication with a child is not.
None of this is about gaming the system. A person should be charged with what the evidence supports, and no more. The charging decision has always been the point of greatest leverage in a criminal case, and that leverage has just grown. Pre-charge representations, a challenge to an overcharged count or a well-argued basis of plea can now change how much of a sentence is spent in a cell.
Most of our work happens before a sentence exists, at the pre-charge stage, where the question is whether there should be a charge at all, and if so, which one. Where a release date or licence condition is wrong, we correct it through the prison, the Probation Service and, if necessary, judicial review. We also cover the presumption in favour of suspending shorter prison sentences in our guide to the suspended sentence changes, and the unduly lenient sentence scheme in a separate guide.
We offer confidential consultations, in person at our London offices or remotely by secure call.
1 October 2026, under SI 2026/953, made under the Sentencing Act 2026. For people already in custody, the change arrives on a date set by sentence length, between 1 October 2026 and 8 June 2027.
Most adults on standard determinate sentences are automatically released at one third. Those whose release was deferred under s.244ZA now leave at one half. Sentences for excluded offences keep their existing release point.
The government excluded rape, child sex offences, grooming offences, indecent images of children, unlawful killing including death by driving, and historic indecent assault, plus attempts and conspiracies. The full list is in the Schedule to SI 2026/953.
Yes, but in tranches. The shortest sentences moved on 1 October 2026; the longest move on 8 June 2027.
Not routinely for adults. HMPPS stopped it as a matter of policy from 2 September 2026, even though the statutory power to restrict it has not been commenced.
They can push it back. Prisoners who break prison rules while in prison can be given up to 84 additional days per proven charge, with no overall limit.
No. Release for extended sentences, life terms and IPP is unchanged, and for most people serving them in prison it still depends on the Parole Board.
Yes, and that is separate from these changes. Under section 248 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, the Secretary of State can release a prisoner on compassionate grounds, usually terminal illness or severe incapacity, under the Ministry of Justice policy framework.
Victims in the victim contact scheme should hear from their victim liaison officer, who can explain the release and any licence conditions that relate to them, such as an exclusion zone. The government has also announced a national helpline.
Lex Vindico Group is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. This article was written by Akram Mula, LLM, Solicitor Advocate and CPS-approved Prosecutor, founder of Lex Vindico Group. It is general information about the release provisions of the Sentencing Act 2026 as at October 2026, not legal advice on any specific case.
Tell us what has happened and we will respond quickly and in confidence.
.svg)
We’re proud to be recognised by the UK’s leading legal and professional bodies. With decades of experience across criminal defence, regulatory law, and litigation, our clients trust our lawyers to deliver results with discretion, precision, and integrity.
Your next step could make all the difference. Speak to our expert legal team now and protect your future.