Senior police chiefs have publicly criticised the Labour government's planned early release scheme for prisoners, warning that it represents "another big ask" for local forces already under significant strain. The scheme, which allows for the earlier release of some offenders in order to ease overcrowding in England's prisons, has proven contentious since its introduction, with police leaders arguing that the additional supervision and monitoring burden falls disproportionately on local constabularies without adequate extra resourcing.

The criticism comes against a backdrop of wider turmoil around the policy, with Lord Timpson, the prisons minister who oversaw the controversial scheme, having quit the government. The article's full detail on the chiefs' specific demands or government response was not available in the source text, but the episode underscores ongoing tension between the Ministry of Justice's efforts to manage prison capacity and the practical pressures placed on frontline policing.