The driver of the vehicle, Henry Long, received a 16-year sentence and is not eligible for early release. But the new rules - introduced in 2022 - did not apply retrospectively to the sentencing of PC Harper's killers, and so do not prevent them from being released early. Hogg said: "The law isn't retrospective and we all understand that, but the fact that they are released early simply seems perverse." Sentencing minister Jake Richards told the BBC it would be wrong to pick out individual cases and block two of PC Harper's killers from early release. On Wednesday the Ministry of Justice released a new list of exclusions that will be exempt from the early release scheme.