Draft Home Detention Curfew and Requisite and Minimum Custodial Periods (Amdt) Order 2024

On 10 December 2024, the House of Commons voted to approve the Draft Home Detention Curfew and Requisite and Minimum Custodial Periods (Amendment) Order 2024. The motion passed by 424 votes to 106. The order amends the rules governing Home Detention Curfew (HDC), the scheme that allows eligible prisoners to be released early on electronic tagging, and adjusts the minimum and required portions of custodial sentences that prisoners must serve before becoming eligible for release. The practical effect of this order is to expand the scope for early release from prison, reducing the portion of a sentence that must be served in custody before HDC or standard release becomes available. The government has framed these changes as a necessary response to severe prison overcrowding in England and Wales. Critics argue the changes compromise public safety and undermine the deterrent and punitive value of sentences handed down by the courts, since offenders would serve a smaller share of their custodial term than originally intended. The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. All 310 Labour MPs and 34 Labour and Co-operative MPs voted in favour, joined by all 64 Liberal Democrats, all four Green MPs, and all three Plaid Cymru members. The Conservatives provided all but a handful of the opposition, with 97 voting against, alongside five Democratic Unionist Party members, three Reform UK members, and one Ulster Unionist. No Conservative voted in favour. The order sits within a broader government drive to manage prison capacity, and comes the day after a separate division on the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill in which the government defeated an opposition new clause by 340 votes to 89, reflecting the government's commanding Commons majority across criminal justice matters in this parliamentary session.