Tracking people let out of prison under the Government’s early release scheme will be an additional challenge on the strained resources of police officers, a leading police chief has warned.

Jason Hogg, the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, also said he was relieved when Prime Minister Andy Burnham confirmed the killers of police officer Andrew Harper would not be eligible for early release.

Thames Valley officer Pc Harper’s killers, as well as grooming gang members, are among those who will be blocked from early prison release under changes announced by the Prime Minister following a backlash over the scope of the scheme.

Some offenders serving indefinite jail sentences, which were abolished in 2012, will also be freed through legislation to be brought forward by the end of this Parliament, the Prime Minister pledged.

Some 5,000 prisoners had been due to be released early from October under plans to ease jail overcrowding, down from 6,000 after ministers intervened to exempt rapists and “serious” child sex offenders.

Chief constable Mr Hogg told LBC on Monday that having to tag and monitor prisoners granted early release would be “difficult” for forces across the country.

He added: “The police haven’t received any additional funding for this additional work, so I’m going to be having to move resources away from one area of business to another to seek out, arrest, and bring before the court individuals who don’t follow the restrictions that they will be set.

“For example, their tagging restrictions. We don’t quite know what the demand will be on that, but I think it’ll be reasonably high, so it’s definitely more work for us.”

Mr Burnham initially resisted calls to limit the scheme further after it emerged that Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, who were convicted of Pc Harper’s manslaughter in 2020, would be eligible from next year.

But under fresh changes announced on Sunday, anyone convicted of unlawful killing, including all forms of manslaughter and death by dangerous driving, will be excluded.

He added: “It will be welcomed not just by me but by police officers in Thames Valley as well, because there’s been such a strength of feeling about this issue. I’m very grateful to the Government listening to this issue.”

“Hundreds” of extra people will remain in prison following the changes, according to Mr Burnham, which will be laid in Parliament through secondary legislation at the beginning of next week.

The Prime Minister said extra space in prisons would be created by deporting foreign prisoners and releasing inmates who are serving indefinite sentences under imprisonment for public protection sentences (IPPs), which were given to offenders considered a significant risk to the public between 2005 and 2012.

But the changes to IPPs could take years to implement and will not be part of the initial measures to ease overcrowding.

The Prime Minister said releasing some offenders on these sentences would require a “very careful” approach because some will still pose a risk of harm.

The law was changed to stop courts handing out IPP sentences in 2012 after warnings that they were being applied too widely, but the abolition was not retrospective, meaning many prisoners already serving such sentences are still behind bars.

Ministry of Justice figures show some 856 IPP prisoners remained unreleased as of June 30 this year. A further 1,415 offenders were recalled after being handed IPP sentences, according to the data.

On Monday, justice minister Alex Davies-Jones insisted that “release does not mean freedom” for those let out under the early release scheme.

She also told BBC Breakfast: “When these offenders come out of prison, the presumption will be that they will all be placed on a GPS monitoring tag.

“We’re introducing for the first time ever a world first restriction zone to limit the freedom and location that the offender can go, and we are also banning them from things like pubs, concert public spaces, taking away their driver’s licence, mandatory work placements.

All of this being carried out to ensure that the victims are put front and centre, that they do have consideration, because previously they weren’t considered.”