Keir Starmer considering plans for prisoners to serve just 40 per cent of their sentences in a bid to ease overcrowding

Sir Keir Stamer is considering plans that could see some prisoners serve just 40 per cent of their sentences in a bid to ease overcrowding in jails.

Newly appointed Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has been advised that the emergency early release plan could prevent prisons running out of space within weeks.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) have been told by officials that the move would give them an extra 18 months to allow more prison places to be freed up. It would also allow for a wider review of sentencing to take place.

Sir Keir this weekend said prisons are an 'obvious example' of a 'broken' system. A record 88,225 people are currently in prison in England and Wales which has led to increased overcrowding.

While no decisions have been finalised and opposition from other ministers is expected, this is a plan Labour are currently considering.

The move would see prisoners serving sentences with a fixed end date, who are currently being released after serving half their time, freed 40 to 43 per cent of the way through instead. 

Offenders who are subject to parole board decisions surrounding their release and those imprisoned for sex crimes, violence or terrorism would not be eligible for the scheme.

It would replace the 10-week early release scheme currently used by prisons which have reached capacity.

If implemented, the new scheme would see thousands of prisoners released early across all prisons in England and Wales.

Ministers are aware they must make a decision in the coming week as it will take the prison service six weeks to carry out risk assessments on inmates and assign probation officers to them. 

If they decide to go ahead with the plan, it would require laying secondary legislation instead of a full Parliamentary Bill.

It would also allow enough time to refurbish old prison cells and get more jails running services online.

Ministers are expected to confirm the manifesto pledge for a review of sentencing,  which would included the possibility of replacing some prison sentences under 12 months with suspended jail terms.

A prison service source told The Telegraph: 'It feels like the only measure that buys time because of the terrible inheritance left by the last government who didn’t fix the prisons crisis and allowed it to get into this state.'

The Prison Governors' Association, penal experts and the Prison Reform Trust, have all backed the early release scheme.

The Prison Reform Trust was chaired by James Timpson, who was appointed Prisons Minister by Sir Keir on Friday.

Mr Timpson, whose shoe repair and key-cutting chain has pioneered employing ex-offenders, is expected to lead efforts to reduce reoffending, with a focus on employment as the biggest counter to it.

In the past, the businessman called for the government to take the 'politics out of sentencing' and proposed a system akin to the Netherlands, where community sentences are used more frequently.