Emergency measures have been activated by the government to ease prison overcrowding as more rioters have been sentenced for their role in recent disorder.

The system, known as Operation Early Dawn, was activated this morning having previously been used in May by the Conservative government. It means defendants waiting for a court appearance can be held in police cells under prison space is available.

More people have been sentenced today for their part in disorder across England and Northern Ireland - you can read more on what happened in court today here.

For the latest details on who has been sentenced so far then head to our interactive article with details on what jail terms have been handed out by judges.

We're going to bring our coverage of the charges and sentencing for the unrest in July and August to a close for the day. Thanks for joining us.

This page was edited by Emily Atkinson, Nathan Williams, Thomas Mackintosh and Sean Seddon. It has been written by Ben Hatton, Sehar Asaf, Suneil Asar and Andrew Humphrey.

Before we bring our coverage to a close, let's have a quick look at some of the latest people to have been before the courts across parts of England:

• In Hull, William Riley, 64, has been jailed for 18 months for his part in disorder in the city after he admitted to punching a police officer in the jaw and handing out eggs for people to throw
• Elsewhere, Gavin Pinder, 47, of Failsworth, Greater Manchester, pleaded guilty to violent disorder in Southport and will be sentenced on Friday
• The sentencing of Oldham mother Nevey Smith, 21, who admitted violent disorder outside an asylum hotel in Newton Heath has been adjourned until 23 September for preparation of a pre-sentencing report

• David Jordan, 59, of Tamworth, has been charged with violent disorder and possession of an offensive weapon in a private place. He's been remanded in custody until he next appears at Stafford Crown Court on Tuesday.

• Finally, Dillan Bahruzi, 38, of Sneyd Green, Stoke-on-Trent, has been charged with violent disorder and has been remanded until his next appearance at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on 16 September

Image source, Humberside Police

A father-of-three who was filmed using a bar stool to smash the front of a Specsavers shop in Hull before doing the same with a fire extinguisher at a Holland & Barrett store has been jailed for three years.

Stuart Randall, 55, also looted an O2 store and a Lush shop in Hull city centre on 3 August.

Hull Crown Court heard Randall danced in front of a police line while waving a riot shield and smashed the front windows of the two shops.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of racially aggravated criminal damage, violent disorder, criminal damage to two shops, burglary of an O2 store and a Lush shop, and possession of cannabis.

The court heard Randall had gone into the city centre to attend a vigil for the three children killed in the attack in Southport.

Randall, who has an alcohol dependency, "accepted a can of cider" from someone and "that's when things spiralled out of control," a judge was told.

Separately, during an attack on a garage owned by a foreign national, Randall was seen smashing cars with a sledgehammer.

The owner, who was barricaded inside his own business with his children and six other people, could smell burning cars and hear threats to harm his family outside as he cowered in fear for his life, the court heard.

More stats to bring you which show at least 422 people in England and Wales have been charged in connection with the violent disorder.

Although it is important to note for context that some people face or have faced multiple charges.

Of the 591 charges analysed by BBC News, violent disorder is the most common, with 270 counts.

There are 42 counts of harassment, alarm or distress and 41 counts of assaulting an emergency worker.

More than 150 people have already been sentenced, according to a BBC analysis of reports from police forces and the courts.

The majority have been sent to prison with an average jail term being two years.

Some cases have involved community orders and fines while teenagers have been sent to young offender institutions.

Below is a graphic showing the breakdown of sentences handed out by English and Welsh judges and magistrates so far.

Andy Gill
Reporting from Liverpool Crown Court

Three more men have been jailed for taking part in violent disorder which broke out in Southport the day after three girls were stabbed to death.

The men all admitted taking part in a disturbance close to Southport mosque the day after the stabbings.

Violence was sparked by false online rumours the suspect in the Southport attack was a Muslim.

Footage played to Liverpool Crown Court showed the men throwing missiles at police and the crowd can also be heard chanting anti-Islamic slogans.

• David Engleby, 29, from Southport, was jailed for two years and four months
• Self-employed joiner Paul Dryhurst, 33, from Litherland, was jailed for two years
• Luke Summerfield, 33, from Aston under Lyne in Greater Manchester, was jailed for two years and two months

Through their defence barristers all three men expressed their remorse at what they had done.

The court heard Dryhurst’s parents both work for the ambulance service and are “baffled” at their son’s behaviour.

Judge Watson said: “It would be wrong and misleading to look at the actions of individuals in isolation because violence feeds on itself. Events gain a momentum of their own.”

Some more court results to bring you this time from Manchester where a tyre fitter who pleaded guilty to violent disorder that took place at a hotel for asylum seekers in Newton Heath has been jailed for 26 months.

Lynden Parker, 26, was part of a mob of people on 31 July who threw bricks and glass bottles at the hotel, as well as an e-cigarette thrown by Parker.

A passing bus with ethnic minority passengers onboard was also surrounded and attacked, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Passing sentence, Judge Patrick Field KC said Parker appeared to have "been motivated by deeply unpleasant, ignorant and possibly extremist racist views" and brought "terror and disorder into this city".

"By your presence as part of a mob and throwing that missile, you were encouraging and spurring on others to behave in a similar way," the Judge Field added.

Let's bring you some comments from the former chief constable of Gloucestershire Constabulary who believes police officers will be left “stretched” by having to maintain their ordinary duties and also guard more people in custody suites.

Dr Tim Brain told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme custody facilities which are just processing and interviewing detained people will continue operate in “more or less the same way”.

But, he said there will be pressure on resources when someone is detained in police cells for a long period of time - for example more than 36 hours.

“I think the short-term processing issues can be handled," he said. "As this extends into the mid-distance, then it'll inevitably place pressure on those police resources.

“The people power that you need to drive the system will be stretched”.

Sima Kotecha
Senior UK correspondent

One source tells me as of the end of last week there were around 80 defendants in the North West of England who ought to have been in prison, but were not in jail because there was no room.

They were held in police cells instead – which are not designed to hold people for long periods.

A prison officer tells me the pressure was immense - especially in the north of the country - with staff having to find spaces “that simply don’t exist”.

One governor says newly convicted offenders were being sent to jails hundreds of miles away because of the lack of spaces in prisons nearby.

They add this does sometimes happen under normal circumstances, but is now happening a lot more.

This then causes challenges with transportation and families having to travel long distances for visits, they say.

It also undermines the rehabilitation process, they added, with regular time for family visits essential to help avoid reoffending.

I’m told there are fewer than 300 available spaces across the male prison estate in England and Wales with almost 100 offenders recalled to jail over the last seven days alone after breaking the conditions of their early release.

Image source, PA Media

Another court result to bring you - this time from the capital where a 41-year-old mother has been given a four-month suspended sentence after admitting a charge of assaulting an emergency worker during a demonstration in central London.

Video footage played to Inner London Crown Court this afternoon showed Kelly Wildego being handcuffed on the ground in Whitehall on 31 July.

Prosecutors said Wildego, of Harrow Manorway, Greenwich, shouted expletives at police officers and rushed at them after most of the violence had stopped.

Wildego admitted her conduct and expressed remorse during a police interview, prosecutor Alex Agbamu told the court.

Joseph Lord, defending, said Wildego is "wholly ashamed" of her actions and got herself arrested to be with her husband, who had been detained by police earlier.

Judge Freya Newbery handed Wildego a suspended sentence because she is a full-time carer for her 13-year-old son, who has learning difficulties.

David Cornock
Political correspondent

More from Sir Keir Starmer who says "a basic failure" by Rishi Sunak's government led to today's decision to activate emergency measures to ease prison overcrowding.

As we have been reporting, across northern England and parts of the Midlands, defendants waiting for a court appearance will be kept in police cells until prison space is available - a temporary move designed to ease pressure on the system.

The prime minister also says the government is mitigating the risk to public safety while freeing up spaces.

"There was a basic failure, which is a failure to have enough prison places for the number of prisoners that were being sentenced to prison," the prime minister has just told reporters.

He adds: "That is as basic a failure of government from the previous government as you could possibly have got."

David Cornock
Political correspondent

Image source, Reuters

We've just been hearing from the prime minister who is holding meetings in Northern Ireland to discuss recent rioting there.

Speaking in Belfast, Sir Keir Starmer says: "The disorder is intolerable, it is incapable of justification.

"It is clearly racist and it does not represent the modern, forward-looking Northern Ireland that I know that this place is."

The PM says he wanted to visit Northern Ireland to meet those affected by the disorder and to thank frontline officers who dealt with it.

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent

Prisons closest to the areas where there was disorder - and the most likely to be used to hold offenders due in court - were almost completely full days before the unrest began, BBC analysis has revealed.

Government data for prisons in England and Wales published on 26 July - four days before the disorder started - laid bare how difficult it was going to be for jails to cope with a sudden influx of prisoners.

• HMP Durham is the nearest “reception” prison - jails generally used as first holding centre - to Sunderland. Four days before the riots, it had just one spare bed because it was already holding 984 inmates
• HMP Altcourse in Liverpool - also a reception prison - was holding 1,187 inmates and had just seven free spaces as judges began sentencing offenders who had rioted in Southport and the city
• Doncaster jail, nearest to the attack on the hotel accommodating asylum seekers in Rotherham, was holding 1,137 men, eight short of its maximum possible capacity
• In Hull, which witnessed what one judge called "12 hours of racist, hate-fuelled mob violence", the local jail was 15 prisoners short of its 977-person capacity

Image source, PA Media

Pia Sinha, chief executive of the charity Prison Reform Trust, tells BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme that the activation of emergency measures was “predictable”.

“We’ve now had an influx of people who need to be given swift justice and prisons are unable to cope with this influx of people,” she says.

Asked why the measure is being implemented in parts of northern England, as well as the East and West Midlands, she notes that the “worst of the far-right riots” had taken place in those areas and some of the most overcrowded prisons are also in those regions.

Sinha adds that prison staff are concerned about the surge in people.

“It absolutely affects the ability for prison staff and prison leaders to provide a regime for the people who are already in there - and that breeds poor mental health, it breeds violence," she says.

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

Emergency plans to ease prison overcrowding are expected to be used for a matter of “days or weeks”, Downing Street says.

Authorities could chose to “move in and out of” the measures as part of Operation Early Dawn, the prime minister’s deputy spokesperson explains.

She adds plans would be kept under “constant review” and government would “activate or deactivate” them to manage “short periods of significant pressure” on the prison estate.

But No 10 did not give figures for how many individuals would be affected by the scheme.

“It is a pre-existing contingency measure that is used for short periods – a matter of days or weeks to manage immediate, localised pressures on the prison estate,” the No 10 spokesperson says.

She adds: “It’s possible, to manage immediate pressures, we’ll move in and out of this operation over the next few weeks, exactly to manage what are short periods of significant pressure, but we’ll keep that under constant review and activate or deactivate for those kinds of short periods as is necessary”.

It is understood the last time Operation Early Dawn was used was for around seven or eight days.

Downing Street insists that police were confident “anyone who poses a risk to the public will not be bailed” and public safety was paramount.

Grandmother Amanda Walton, 52, of Ashling Way, Middlesbrough, and her daughter Megan Davison, a 24-year-old mother of two, wept as they appeared in court together charged with violent disorder following unrest in Middlesbrough.

Ms Walton, who was said to have been walking her dog, is accused of throwing a stone at a building as a mob made its way along Parliament Road on 4 August, and of damaging a car wing mirror.

She is said to have been with her daughter, who is accused of repeatedly jumping on the roof of the same parked car.

Neither entered a plea and were remanded in custody ahead of a court appearance later this month.

Meanwhile, Ms Davison’s partner, Jake Wray, 23, who lives with her at Seaton Street, Middlesbrough, appeared in a neighbouring courtroom charged with violent disorder and arson with intent.

He is accused of stopping cars to ask if the driver was white or English, and setting a wheelie bin alight.

He did not enter pleas, but it was indicated he would deny the offences – he was also remanded in custody for a later court date.

How full are prisons in England and Wales?published at 13:54 British Summer Time 19 August

13:54 BST 19 August

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent

As of last Friday morning there were 87,893 people in jails in England and Wales.

That left an operating margin of 1,298 beds - or about 1.5% of the system's total capacity. That's the number of extra people prisons can take once other constraints - like having to leave some spaces free for prisoners who can't share a cell - are taken into account.

This overcrowding is not new.

Within days of the election the new Labour government had concluded it had no choice but to set out plans to release some offenders early.

From September, some inmates who have served 40% of their sentence will be released on a licence, including monitoring conditions.

Then the riots happened - and as of last Thursday they have added at least 327 to the population.

Straight away that operating margin in the prison system was rapidly eaten into as suspects were remanded or sentenced - at the same time as the Ministry of Justice was trying to find ways to free up more cells.

Victoria Scheer
Reporting from Sheffield Crown Court

Image source, South Yorkshire Police

A rioter who “commandeered” a police riot shield had attended the public disorder outside a hotel in Rotherham while on licence for drug offences.

Nathan Palmer, 29, was part of a group of hundreds who descended on the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, Rotherham, on 4 August.

Police body-worn footage captured the self-employed tradesman picking up a police riot shield after an officer fell to the ground and dropped it.

Palmer, of New Street, Hemingfield, previously pleaded guilty to violent disorder and has today been jailed for two years and eight months.

Sheffield Crown Court heard Palmer’s custodial sentence would have an impact on the end-of-life care of his elderly grandmother who has dementia and has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Recorder of Sheffield Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, told Palmer: “What possessed you to participate in this crime can only be described as comprehensive stupidity.

“The simple fact of the matter is, however, you did participate and you were well to the fore, in consequence of which you must now be punished.”

Victoria Scheer
Reporting from Sheffield Crown Court

Image source, South Yorkshire Police

Niven Matthewman, 19, was part of the violent mob that gathered outside the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, Rotherham on 4 August.

Matthewman, of Albert Street, Swinton, was filmed carrying around a large piece of wood and throwing a chair towards the hotel which was believed to house around 200 asylum seekers at the time.

He also participated in chanting "Yorkshire, Yorkshire" and in violently rocking a police dog van from side to side.

The court heard the two officers who were inside the vehicle together with a police dog "feared for their lives".

A YouTube compilation also showed Matthewman draped in an England flag while the song "Bang Bang" by Ariana Grande, Jessie J and Nicki Minaj played.

Matthewman, who had no previous convictions, had pleaded guilty to violent disorder at Barnsley Magistrates' Court on 14 August.

He is sentenced to two years and eight months in a young offender institution and made subject of a criminal behaviour order for 10 years.

The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, told the defendant his conduct had been "shameful", adding: "You were a participant in a very serious incident.

"You were not a bystander, you were well to the fore."

Image source, Cleveland Police

Some more people have been sentenced this morning including a mother-of-six who threw a brick at police officers during a violent protest in Hartlepool.

Donna Conniff, of Alford Court in Hartlepool, was identified from CCTV and video footage from the protest in the town on 31 July.

The 40-year-old was dressed all in black and wearing sunglasses, and was also seen handing a brick to a juvenile who threw it towards police, and was part of a crowd of people who surged forwards at officers and was seen joining in with cheers as missiles were thrown.

Martin Scarborough, defending Conniff, told Teesside Crown Court that Conniff came across the protest, which had been advertised on social media, "by chance" at around 18:00 BST that evening.

Judge Francis Laird KC accepted Conniff, who earlier pleaded guilty to violent disorder, was remorseful, but said: "Your behaviour and the behaviour of others around you was truly disgraceful."

Conniff has been jailed for two years and must serve up to half of her 24-month sentence in custody before being released on licence.