The prime minister has told the justice secretary to find a way of excluding the killers of PC Andrew Harper from an early release scheme designed to ease prison overcrowding, Downing Street has confirmed.
The prime minister is said to be "determined" that a solution can be found following mounting pressure from Harper's family and police, who oppose plans that would see Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers freed in January. The pair were sentenced to 13 years for manslaughter over Harper's death.
On Monday, Downing Street initially said it was "not possible" to exempt "one or two offenders" convicted of manslaughter from the scheme, and it remains unclear how the government could prevent Cole and Bowers being treated differently from other prisoners serving similar sentences.
However, a government spokesperson later said the justice secretary would "work through further options" to look at ways of keeping "a greater number of the most serious offenders" behind bars.
"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," the spokesperson said.
Harper, 28, died after becoming caught in a strap attached to the back of a car and being dragged along a country road as the killers fled the scene of a quad-bike theft in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in 2019.
Cole and Bowers, two of three men sentenced over the police officer's death, are due to be released halfway through their 13-year sentences following their manslaughter convictions in 2020. A petition calling for government intervention has attracted nearly 900,000 signatures.
The communities secretary, Angela Rayner, said the prime minister was "determined to ensure that there is a solution to this" and had tasked the justice secretary with bringing proposals to parliament in September.
Around 5,000 people are expected to be released early under the sentencing changes, down from an initial estimate of 6,000 after exemptions were announced as part of an urgent review of the scheme aimed at addressing jail overcrowding. Those convicted of rape, serious child sex offences and grooming offences have already been exempted.
Prison Service officials have reportedly warned that altering the terms of the early release scheme to keep manslaughter convicts such as Cole and Bowers in custody would require further early releases within 18 months to manage capacity.
Prison governors have said the prime minister's earlier decision to exempt rapists and serious child sex offenders has forced thousands of sentences to be recalculated at short notice, raising concerns that some prisoners could be mistakenly released early.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Rayner said other options under consideration to relieve pressure on prison capacity could include speeding up the deportation of foreign criminals, reviewing indefinite sentences, and examining the length of jail terms given to female prisoners. "So there is a lot of work that's going on," she said.
Rayner added: "The prime minister has made it clear he will not just accept that the system says no. He understands the anger and the trauma that PC Harper's family are going through, and others, and other victims who are seeing this prison crisis unfold and they feel that they're not getting the justice, and it's reopening the trauma that they have been through."
The early release changes stem from the Sentencing Act passed earlier this year, which reduced the minimum time many offenders must spend in prison before release.
The third man convicted over Harper's death, the vehicle's driver, Henry Long, was given a longer sentence of 16 years. Because he received an extended determinate sentence, he is not eligible to be considered under the early release scheme.
