Sentencing Bill Committee: Amendment 24

Parliament voted on 21 October 2025 on amendment 24 to the Sentencing Bill, tabled by Dr Kieran Mullan (Conservative, Bexhill and Battle). The amendment sought to widen the range of serious offences explicitly excluded from the Bill's earlier release provisions, with supporters arguing it was necessary to prevent rapists and child sex offenders from benefiting from reduced time in prison. The Committee of the whole House defeated the amendment by 307 votes to 182. The Sentencing Bill resets statutory release points for prisoners serving Standard Determinate Sentences, establishing a minimum release point of one third for sentences currently released at 40 or 50 per cent. The amendment addressed whether the most serious sexual offenders would be caught by the Bill's existing exclusions or would in practice benefit from earlier release. Supporters of the amendment argued that thousands of people convicted of rape and child sexual abuse were not in fact excluded, meaning they would be released earlier than under the current system. The government held that existing exclusions were already sufficient. The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. All 90 voting Conservative MPs and all 65 voting Liberal Democrats supported the amendment, as did the Democratic Unionist Party, Plaid Cymru, Reform UK, and the Green Party. Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs voted overwhelmingly against, with only one Labour MP voting with the amendment. The vote came during Committee stage of the whole House, a format Dr Mullan himself criticised for limiting scrutiny compared with a conventional Public Bill Committee.