The Criminal Justice (Sentencing) (Licence Conditions) (Amendment and Revocation) Order 2026, S.I. 2026/911, was made on 7 August 2026, signed by Catherine McKinnell for the Ministry of Justice, and laid before Parliament on 10 August 2026. It extends to England and Wales and is structured as a revocation-and-replacement instrument. Its immediate effect is to withdraw S.I. 2026/760 and substitute a fresh instrument carrying the same policy text but different commencement dates. The Explanatory Note also states that the replacement is being issued free of charge to all known recipients of the earlier statutory instrument.
The Order is made under section 250(1) and (8A) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. The instrument records that the Secretary of State had regard to the statutory purposes of licence supervision under Chapter 6 of Part 12 of that Act: protection of the public, prevention of re-offending and the successful reintegration of the prisoner into the community. That point is legally important. The Order does not create a new release framework; it adjusts the standard conditions attached to determinate sentence prisoners released on licence and restates them in a form intended to be easier for offenders to understand.
Commencement is split. Articles 1 and 3 come into force on 1 September 2026, while article 2, which contains the substantive amendments to the 2015 licence conditions order, comes into force on 1 October 2026. This altered timetable explains the revocation of the July instrument. According to the Explanatory Note, S.I. 2026/760 is being revoked solely to allow the Department to change the commencement date, and the replacement Order is otherwise unchanged.
Article 2 amends the Criminal Justice (Sentencing) (Licence Conditions) Order 2015. First, it inserts a definition of "supervising officer", linking that term to the officer responsible for managing the offender under probation provision arrangements made under section 3 of the Offender Management Act 2007. Secondly, it substitutes a new version of article 3(2), which contains the standard licence conditions applying to offenders released from determinate sentences. The drafting keeps the familiar compliance requirements but recasts them in plainer language for day-to-day supervision.
Under the substituted conditions, an offender must behave well, must not commit any crime, and must keep in touch with the supervising officer as instructed. The offender must meet the supervising officer where directed, including at home, and must live at an address approved by the supervising officer unless permission is given to stay elsewhere for one or more nights. The revised text also tightens the practical information requirements around work, travel and identity. Offenders must tell the supervising officer about any new work or type of work and obtain approval before starting it, disclose any passport and provide passport details when asked, seek permission before applying for a new passport, and obtain permission before leaving the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man unless they are being deported or removed for immigration purposes. They must also disclose any names not shown on the licence and report changes to contact details, including telephone numbers and email addresses.
For probation staff, prison release teams and legal advisers, the main operational consequence is timing rather than policy change. Case preparation previously tied to S.I. 2026/760 should now be aligned to S.I. 2026/911, with revocation taking effect from 1 September 2026 and the amended standard conditions beginning on 1 October 2026. The Explanatory Note says no impact assessment has been produced because no impact, or no significant impact, on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen. Even so, the redrafted wording matters in practice: clearer conditions can reduce ambiguity at the point of release, support probation case management and make enforcement expectations easier to communicate to offenders.