Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 30 June 2026 to Question 12838 on Ministry of Justice: Offences against Children: Prisoners' Release, what the licence conditions are and what oversight is in place for those released early who have been part of grooming gangs.

This Government is committed to strengthening public protection and ensuring the Probation Service has the tools and capacity it needs to keep communities safe and protect victims. We are investing £700 million into probation and community services, recruiting 1,300 additional probation officers this year, and ensuring every prison leaver is tagged unless there is clear reason not to.

On release from custody all offenders are subject to standard licence conditions which emphasise that the offender is still serving their sentence in the community, must stay in touch with probation, and will be recalled to custody if they cannot be safely managed in the community.

Probation will apply additional licence conditions where appropriate to address the specific risks an offender presents – including victim-related conditions such as exclusion zones and no-contact requirements. We are also introducing restriction zones for the most serious sexual and violent offenders where appropriate, which will be enforced by electronic monitoring. Victims who are eligible and opted into the Victim Contact Scheme will be notified of an offender’s release, in line with existing practice and will continue to be able to make representations for licence conditions.

All offenders will remain on licence to the end of their sentence and where an offender breaches their licence conditions, probation have a full suite of options for managing this, including recall to prison.