Scotland has activated emergency early release rules for short-sentence prisoners from 10 November 2025, after MSPs approved the Early Release of Prisoners (Scotland) Regulations 2025. Ministers describe the step as “necessary and proportionate” to protect security, good order and welfare across the prison estate during an ongoing emergency.

The regulations apply to every prison and young offenders institution in Scotland. They cover people serving less than four years who were in custody on set dates and already due for statutory release under the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993.

Eligibility is tied to snapshot points. A person qualifies if they were serving on 20 October 2025 and are due to be released within the 180 days after the rules start on 10 November 2025. Further snapshots are 15 December 2025 (due within 180 days after 26 January 2026), 30 January 2026 (due within 180 days after 23 February 2026), 27 February 2026 (due within 180 days after 23 March 2026) and 27 March 2026 (due within 180 days after 27 April 2026).

Release will be staged. For the first cohort, prisons will release those due within 60 days of commencement between 11 and 13 November 2025; those due within 120 days between 25 and 27 November; and those due within 180 days between 9 and 11 December.

Later groups follow fixed windows: 27 to 29 January 2026; 24 to 26 February 2026; 24 to 26 March 2026; and 28 to 30 April 2026. If someone misses a window, they must be released as soon as reasonably practicable and, in any case, by 30 April 2026, the latest release date set in law.

Safeguards are built in. Anyone with an unspent conviction for domestic abuse-whether an offence aggravated by domestic abuse or an offence under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018-is excluded on the date they would otherwise be released under the scheme. People subject to a non-harassment order are also excluded, as are those sentenced on or after 28 March 2026.

There is a limited exception. If a person is excluded solely because of a domestic abuse-related conviction and that conviction becomes spent before 30 April 2026, the prison must arrange release as soon as practicable after it becomes spent, and no later than the end of April.

Legally, ministers are acting under section 3C of the 1993 Act, which allows a response to pressure on prisons. A draft was laid before and approved by the Scottish Parliament, and the regulations were signed by Angela Constance in Edinburgh on 6 November 2025.

For readers in the North of England, the practical meaning is straightforward. Families in Cumbria and Northumberland with relatives in Scottish custody may see release dates brought forward by weeks. Victim-support organisations on both sides of the border will note the explicit domestic abuse exclusions and the tight timetable to April 2026.

The calendar is tight and the scope narrow: sentences under four years, people already nearing their statutory release, and a final legal backstop of 30 April 2026. Anyone outside these definitions remains on the standard timetable set by the courts and existing release law.