Proposals for sentences under a year imprisonment being axed will likely lead to many offenders who abuse women and girls walking free – due to the short sentences these offences often garner.

Read More: Self-harm rates in female prisons reaches all time high, as charity calls for better mental health support for inmates

Offenders guilty of stalking and revenge porn could see non-custodial sentences doled out – potentially putting women’s safety at risk.

The latest available figures from the Ministry of Justice for 2022 collated by The Independent show:

Ellie Butt, of domestic abuse charity Refuge, said: “These are not ‘low-level offenders’ and many perpetrators of domestic abuse will be in prison serving short sentences.

“So it is vital survivors of domestic abuse and violence against women and girl offences are protected and perpetrators of these crimes receive custodial sentences.”

UK domestic abuse commissioner Nicole Jacobs said: “Frequently, short sentences are the only recourse to hold these dangerous perpetrators to account”.

Analysis of MOJ statistics shows that the available capacity at Britain’s maximum-security prisons stood at only 189 spaces in August 2023, with HMP Wandsworth, the facility where Khalife escaped on Wednesday, being just 11 inmates short of reaching its operational maximum.

It comes as the ministers and police officers are questioning why the fugitive was not stationed at a Category A premises.