What assessment it has made of the long-term effectiveness of Emergency Early Release schemes and the reduction of the automatic release po…

Scotland’s emergency early release (EER) mechanism enables Scottish Ministers to release groups of short-term prisoners within 180 days of their scheduled release, where it is considered necessary and proportionate to do so in order to protect the security and good order of prisons, and/or to protect the health and well-being of prison workers and prisoners.EER is a temporary measure designed to mitigate acute population pressures by bringing forward the release of a limited cohort of prisoners who are already approaching their scheduled release date. As such, it is not intended to produce a sustained reduction in the prison population.The EER process that operated between November 2025 and April 2026 was used to address the critical prison population at the time. Over this period 614 individuals were released earlier than their scheduled release date.The change in the automatic release point for certain short-term prisoners to 30% from 40% implemented from May 2026, forms part of a wider package of measures taken to manage prison population levels over the longer term.It is estimated that the prison population today would be around 240 to 310 higher had the change in release point to 30% not been introduced.