Sentencing changes to cost 'hundreds of millions’ in extra policing, Met chief tells LBC

28 May 2025, 10:04 | Updated: 28 May 2025, 10:39

Proposed changes to criminal sentencing guidelines are set to cost "hundreds of million" in extra policing costs, Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Mark Rowley has told LBC.

Speaking on Wednesday, the Met Commissioner said the Government has remained "silent" on the impact of sentencing reforms on policing.

Under the new proposals, an increased number of offenders are set to be released from prison early in a bid to ease overcrowding in prisons across English and Wales.

Inmates who have served as little as a third of their sentences could be released ahead of schedule if they behave well and take part in rehabilitation programmes, which could see mandatory time served increase to 50% of their sentence if they do not behave well.

The government's plan to release prisoners poses a huge risk to public safety and threatens to undermine confidence in policing and criminal justice, police chiefs warned on Tuesday.

Read more: Sadiq Khan calls for some cannabis possession to be decriminalised

Read more: Disney accused of abusing 'animal-cruelty loophole’ by RSPCA over rat-drowning scene

Sir Mark Rowley's told LBC's Fraser Knight that the Met "understands the Chancellor has got a difficult balancing act" where prison overcrowding and other economic demands are concerned.

However, he highlighted that the need for figures where the early release scheme was concerned, in a bid "to help us respond to the extra demand on communities."

Admitting proposals to release prisoners early will put added strain on local communities, Sir Mark Rowley acknowledged that "some of those offenders are going to commit more crime, more trouble locally, and that’s going to wash back onto policing".

"The sentencing review is really critical," he told LBC.

"The government has got a difficult problem to fix with sentencing policy historically and prison building haven’t been lined up. So they’ve got to deal with that.

"But if we’re now going to deal with offenders on the streets who have previously been in prison - however good a job probation do with the extra money they’ve got, some of those offenders are going to commit more crime, more trouble locally, and that’s going to wash back onto policing - and we need the resources to deal with that."

Highlighting that for "every pound you spend on policing, you’ll get four pounds back in GDP", the Met Commissioner insisted policing remains key to the government’s growth agenda.

Asked why now was the time to write this letter to the Chancellor, Sir Mark Rowley said: "We understand the chancellor has got a difficult balancing act and we felt that this weekend, when we sat down writing, that it was the time to put our case public and say: ‘don’t forget policing’."

The Government has remained “silent on the effect on policing”, he told LBC.

"They’ve just looked at fixing the problems within prisons and probation. We want to see the data and do the analysis that helps us understand the impact on policing - and how many hundreds of millions it’s going to take to help us to respond to the extra demand on communities."

The new sentencing guidelines - aimed at easing the vast overcrowding in Britain's jails - mark the biggest revival of the prison system in 30 years.

But the Ministry of Justice has now been sent a stark warning - with senior figures raising concerns that things could get "out of control".

The letter, published by The Times, adds that the government needs to include an extra extra £300 million “control the additional offending population at large” in its next spending review on June 11, with fears the "necessary resources” may not be in place to cope with the impacts.

It says: “On the basis of what we understand at the moment, we are concerned that the proposals could be of net detriment to public safety and certainty to public confidence in policing and the criminal justice system.

“We are not arguing for the status quo. But we have to ensure that out of court does not mean out of justice, and out of prison does not mean out of control.”

It has been signed by heads of the Metropolitan Police, MI5 and the National Crime Agency (NCA). They include Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley, MI5 deputy director-general of Graeme Biggar, and NCA director-general.

Gavin Stephens, the chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and Vicki Evans, the national lead on counter-terror policing, have also signed the letter, as has Sacha Hatchett, the national lead on criminal justice at the NPCC.