Re-Release | David Gauke: Solving the UK Prison Crisis

With co-hosts Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC travelling in widely separated time zones, it’s proved impossible to record the weekly episode as normal. But rather than skip an episode altogether we thought that with Parliament due to return next week and with the new Lord Chancellor Alex Norris due to announce major changes to the early release provisions of the Sentencing Act 2026 as a result of public fury at the prospect of the killers of PC Harper benefiting from the scheme, our audience would appreciate a chance to listen (or re-listen) to the 4th June 2025 episode when our guest was David Gauke, the former Conservative Justice Secretary 2018/19. It was the report produced in May 2025 by Gauke’s Independent Review of Sentencing which formed the basis for the (now much reviled) early release provisions of the Sentencing Act - provisions which mark a fundamental change in sentencing policy and which were enacted by Parliament in order to address the deep crisis of prison capacity resulting from the deadly combination of a total failure by consecutive Conservative governments to build sufficient new prison places over the fifteen years they were in power and an ever expanding prison population. In our discussion with David, he explained how his recommendations for what were, in reality, very limited changes to our overly complex, messy and confusing sentencing systems were intended to reduce our use of short custodial sentences, ease the pressure on our overcrowded, collapsing prison system while boosting investment in community penalties and a reinvigorated probation service. With the prospect now of Andy Burnham flinching at the first sign of populist revulsion at the idea of prisoners convicted of violence being granted early release after serving only a third or half of their sentences, our discussion with David Gauke provides helpful context for the next round of political debate around the apparently never ending crisis that afflicts our penal system. It is a salutary reminder of the political challenges that face any government seeking to wean a nation away from a relentless belief that locking people up for years in conditions which make rehabilitation impossible is a sensible use of public money.

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