00:00The Prime Minister has asked the Justice Department to look specifically at Andrew Harper's killers,
00:04but I wouldn't want to pre-empt the outcome of reviewing this particular issue.
00:10I think it's really important to note that the reason why we've had to look at doing this particular release
00:15scheme
00:15is because our prisons have been at capacity and have been in crisis for a long time now.
00:20It's a crisis we inherited and we're working to try and deal with that.
00:24So we're building 14,000 new prison places which will be online by the end of the decade.
00:28We've put investment into probation to try and support them better, particularly around tagging and monitoring of offenders.
00:35There's lots of work gone on to this area, but I think we need to be really clear
00:38that if we allow our prisons to fill up again like the last government did in 2024,
00:44and if we get to October or November and they're full, what that will mean is there is no capacity
00:48for future offenders
00:50and we'll have to stop making arrests and shut down the courts.
00:52And that is categorically not an option.
00:54So it's really important we make sure there's capacity in our prisons.
00:57But I think that the public, the Prime Minister, myself, and the whole government feel
01:01that it's really important that PC Harper's Killers are not released as part of that.
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