Justice Secretary David Lammy will give a statement to MPs in the House of Commons after the Ministry of Justice confirmed that 91 criminals have been freed in error since April 1
More than 90 prisoners were mistakenly released from jail over a seven-month period this year.
The Ministry of Justice confirmed that 91 criminals were freed in error from April 1 to October 31.
Justice Secretary and Deputy PM David Lammy will give a statement to MPs in the House of Commons this afternoon.
Last week, Mr Lammy said the recent mistakes were down to “human error” with a paper-based system still used to handle prisoners’ cases. He has ordered an urgent independent review to understand the spike in errors but admitted that the “system is overheating”, with understaffing in prisons and courts overflowing.
“Our prison system is in crisis so we have to bear down on this but we have a mountain to climb,” he said.
Almost 800 prisoners were released in error under the Tories, according to official stats. In 2012, just 42 people were incorrectly freed. But numbers steadily increased each year, reaching 115 in 2023/24. In total, 797 were freed between March 2012 and March 2024.
The data released by the Ministry of Justice dates back to 2012, two years after the Tories took office, so the true numbers are likely to be slightly higher.
Labour inherited a major prisons crisis from the Tories, who failed to ensure there was sufficient jail space to deal with a growing prison population. Jails were just 100 spaces away from reaching full capacity over last summer, when Labour was elected.
Shabana Mahmood, the former Justice Secretary and now Home Secretary, was forced to take emergency early release measures as soon as she took office. She said the justice system was on the brink of collapse and that criminals would not be able to be arrested if jail space was not urgently made available.
But the early release plans saw prisoners freed in error jump up. In 2024/25, the first year under a Labour government, the number of incorrect releases increased from 115 to 262.
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