Prisoners serving less than four years could be released over a month early

A scheme to release male prisoners early because of the lack of space is set to be massively expanded, less than six months after launching.

It means eligible prisoners serving sentences of less than four years can be let out of prison over a month early.

Sky News understands the justice secretary, Alex Chalk, is expected to announce changes to the programme, which began in October, in the House of Commons next week.

The End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme allows prisoners to be released up to 18 days before the end of their sentence to reduce an “acute and exceptional demand” on prison places.

But now prisons and the probation service have been told the “maximum period” in advance of a prisoner’s release date will “extend to 35 days” before the end of their original sentence, for “eligible male prisoners.”

It will remain at 18 days in women’s prisons.

Sex offenders, terrorists and category A prisoners, plus those serving four years or more, are excluded from the scheme.

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Sources close to the prison service have expressed concern about the extent to which the scheme is being amended, at pace, and with little to no warning.

They say they have fears such extensions make releases unsafe – in some cases meaning prisoners are released without permanent accommodation.

Without a home, some offenders can’t be fitted with the appropriate location monitoring tags.

This development comes weeks after documents leaked to Sky News revealed a scheme that was originally announced as “temporary”, was later quietly “updated” and “revised” to last for an “undefined” period.

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Shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “It’s time for Rishi Sunak to finally come clean with the public.

“There has been zero transparency from the Tory government on their offender early release scheme.

“We’ve had no explanation from the government on how this will impact an already overloaded probation service. This will only breed fears of risk to communities,” she said.

Figures published on Friday showed 88,220 people are currently behind bars in England and Wales.

The number of people that can be held in “safe and decent accommodation” in prison, known as the “certified normal accommodation” or “uncrowded capacity”, is considered by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to be 79,507.

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That means the current overall system is almost 111% of capacity.

An MoJ spokesperson said: “While we are carrying out the biggest prison expansion programme since the Victorian era and ramping up removals of foreign national offenders, the prison estate remains under pressure following the impact of the pandemic and barristers’ industrial action.

“We will always ensure we have the prison places we need to keep criminals locked up and the public safe.”

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