The Ministry of Justice has issued a replacement statutory instrument to amend the standard licence conditions that apply to offenders released after fixed-term prison sentences in England and Wales. The Criminal Justice (Sentencing) (Licence Conditions) (Amendment and Revocation) Order 2026, S.I. 2026/911, was made on 7 August 2026 and laid before Parliament on 10 August 2026. According to the instrument and its Explanatory Note, the new Order revokes and replaces S.I. 2026/760. The stated reason is limited but important: the department has changed the commencement date, while leaving the substance of the earlier July instrument otherwise unchanged.
The Order is made under section 250 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, including the newer subsection 250(8A). In the preamble, the Secretary of State records that regard has been given to the statutory purposes of licence supervision: protection of the public, prevention of re-offending and the successful re-integration of the prisoner into the community. The commencement timetable is split. Articles 1 and 3 come into force on 1 September 2026, while article 2, which makes the substantive amendment to the 2015 licence conditions framework, comes into force on 1 October 2026. For practitioners, that means the revocation step happens before the revised standard conditions begin to apply.
One technical change inserts a definition of "supervising officer" into the Criminal Justice (Sentencing) (Licence Conditions) Order 2015. The definition ties the role to the officer responsible for managing the offender under probation arrangements made under section 3 of the Offender Management Act 2007. That matters because the amended conditions place a series of decisions and approvals in the hands of that supervising officer. The drafting therefore does more than tidy the text: it fixes responsibility clearly within the probation management structure already used for licence supervision.
The rewritten standard conditions restate the basic expectations placed on offenders after release. From 1 October 2026, an offender must behave in a way that supports the purpose of being on licence, must not commit further offences, and must keep in touch with the supervising officer as directed. The new text also makes the practical requirements more explicit. Offenders must attend meetings where the supervising officer specifies, including meetings at the offender's home, must live at an approved address, and must obtain permission before staying elsewhere for one or more nights.
The same set of conditions also covers work, identity and contact information. Offenders must tell the supervising officer about any new work, or type of work, they want to do and must secure approval before starting it. They must also report any names they use that differ from the names recorded on the licence. Changes to contact details must also be notified, including telephone numbers and email addresses. According to the Explanatory Note, the wording of the standard conditions has been updated so that offenders can understand them more easily, which is likely to matter at the point of release when probation staff explain the terms of licence.
The clearest new requirement concerns passports. Offenders must tell the supervising officer if they hold a passport and must provide any passport details the officer asks for. They must also obtain permission before applying for a new passport. This sits alongside the existing restriction on foreign travel. Offenders must still get permission before leaving the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, except where a person is being deported or removed for immigration purposes. In operational terms, probation teams will now need to treat passport status as a routine part of licence induction and ongoing supervision.
Because these are standard conditions, they form the baseline rules for determinate sentence prisoners released on licence unless additional case-specific conditions are imposed. Clearer drafting therefore has system-wide importance: it affects the language used by probation staff, the instructions given to offenders and the records that need to be maintained during supervision. Article 3 revokes the July 2026 Order, and the Explanatory Note says the replacement instrument is being issued free of charge to all known recipients of the earlier version. No impact assessment has been produced because the Ministry of Justice does not expect a significant effect on the private, voluntary or public sectors. Even so, from 1 October 2026 the revised Order will set a clearer and more detailed baseline for day-to-day licence management in England and Wales.