Automatic Conditional Release (ACR)

Applies to prisoners serving sentences over 12 months and less than four years. Release is automatic, subject to licence conditions. The release point has moved twice: it was the halfway point until SDS40 took it to 40% in September 2024, and from 1 October 2026 the Sentencing Act 2026 takes it to one-third for most standard determinate sentences. Offences in the Schedule to SI 2026/953 keep the release point they have now.