MP Welcomes Closure on End of Custody Licence scheme  

  Gisela Stuart welcomed the announcement in the House of Commons, to close the End of Custody Licence Scheme. The ECL scheme was introduced in June 2007 as a temporary measure to manage pressures upon the prison estate and to guarantee that prison places were available for all those sentenced to custody. ECL enabled prison governors, under existing prison rules, to release on licence up to 18 days before the end of their sentence offenders who had been given a determinate prison sentence of four weeks to four years. The scheme specifically excluded offenders convicted of serious sexual or violent crimes, those who had broken the terms of temporary release in the past, foreign national prisoners who would be subject to deportation at the end of their sentence and was later amended to exclude anyone convicted of terrorism related offences. Ministers always made clear it was a temporary...