Call for clarity on releases in error as prisoner mistakenly counted as at large

The Justice Secretary has been urged to provide clarity on the scale of accidental prisoner releases after it emerged a prisoner was mistakenly counted as having been freed in error.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said he would ask David Lammy in the Commons on Tuesday to make clear how many prisoners have been accidentally released since April 1 this year and how many are still at large.

He said in a letter to Mr Lammy that he would also ask how many of those released in error are violent or sexual offenders.

It comes after a prisoner was mistakenly counted among those currently at large who have been released in error from prison, it is understood.

Over the weekend, it was reported that a total of four such offenders had been released in error, with two released in June this year, and two in 2024.

On Monday, sources within the Government suggested that one of these had been returned to custody.

But in a sign of the crisis behind the scenes within the custodial estate, he is understood to have never actually been released in error, and was miscounted among those who had been.

Whether the miscounted prisoner remains in custody or was released at the correct time is unclear.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “These cases reflect the nature and scale of the prison crisis inherited by this Government.

“We have been clear that there is no overnight fix.

“That’s why we’re building 14,000 more prison places and sending in tech experts to modernise the system and provide immediate support to staff.”

Three prisoners are now understood to be at large after being released in error, and the Prime Minister’s spokesman urged the public to help the police with their inquiries about them.

He told reporters: “The three remaining are subject to live police investigations.

“Obviously I’m limited in what I can say, but clearly we would urge anyone with any information to come forward to the police.”

Ministers have faced mounting pressure over releases in error after the double manhunt sparked by the releases of an Algerian sex offender and a fraudster from HMP Wandsworth.

Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was arrested on Friday after a police search following his release from the south-west London prison on October 29, which Scotland Yard said officers were only informed of on Tuesday.

Kaddour-Cherif was serving a sentence for trespass with intent to steal, but had previously been convicted for indecent exposure.

He is understood to have overstayed his visitor’s visa to the UK after arriving in 2019, and was in the process of being deported.

Another prisoner, Billy Smith, 35, who was also accidentally freed from Wandsworth on Monday – after having been sentenced to 45 months for multiple fraud offences – handed himself back in on Thursday.

Mr Lammy admitted on Friday there is a “mountain to climb” to tackle the crisis in the prisons system.

The blunders have intensified pressure on Mr Lammy following the mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu, whose arrest for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman while living in an asylum hotel sparked protests in Epping, Essex.

Stronger security checks were announced for prisons and an independent investigation was launched into releases in error after the now-deported Ethiopian national was accidentally freed from HMP Chelmsford on October 24.

Mr Jenrick said the accidental releases of Kebatu, Kaddour-Cherif and Smith were “just the tip of the iceberg” and that the British public deserve to have the “full picture” in his letter to Mr Lammy.

Some 262 inmates were mistakenly let out in the year to March 2025 – a 128% increase on the 115 in the previous 12 months, according to the latest Government figures.

Of the total, 90 releases in error were of violent or sex offenders.

Speaking in the House of Lords on Monday, prisons minister Lord James Timpson said there is “no quick fix” to releases in error, and it is “going to take time to get it right”.

He told peers the current process of releasing prisoners is a mixture of paperwork and a digital system, adding: “There are literally boxes and boxes of paperwork all over desks and on the floor that are following offenders around the various prisons that they go to.

“My solution and the team solution is very much digitally based.”

Lord Timpson said the number of releases per prison varies “dramatically”, for example HMP Gartree in Leicestershire averages two releases a year, compared with HMP Wandsworth where it is 2,000.

The minister said a digital team visited HMP Wandsworth last week and is considering using an AI chatbot to help with releases, as well as cross-referencing for prisoners’ aliases.

“We’ve given the team the green light to get on with that,” he told peers.