The UK Justice Secretary has revealed that prisoners are continuing to be released by mistake and that a further 12 prisoners have been released from prison by mistake since November.
David Lammy told BBC Breakfast that despite the latest figures “the trend is downwards” following reforms to the system.
Lammy told the House of Commons in mid-November that there were 91 accidental releases in England and Wales between April 1 and October 31 this year.
He said on Tuesday: “Well, I said it in Parliament a few weeks ago, I released the data at the time, and there were 91 releases that were flawed at that time, there have been 12 since then, two are currently at large.”
Lammy said the two inmates were still at large and confirmed they were not violent or sex offenders.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I’m not going to give details of those cases because those are operational decisions made by the police, and you will understand that if they’re going to arrest someone they wouldn’t want me to cover it up.
“So I’d say that’s two.”
Asked whether he was a violent or sexual offender, Lammy said: “I’m convinced he has no connection with either of those.”
Lammy previously said that 262 prisoners had been released by mistake out of 57,000 releases by March 2025, an increase of 128% from the previous year.
The statement comes after Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif and fraudster Billy Smith were mistakenly freed from HMP Wandsworth. Smith turned himself in and police captured Kaddour-Cherif last week.
A few days before that, Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian national, was mistakenly freed from HMP Chelmsford despite being convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman shortly after arriving in Britain on a small boat.
Lamy confirmed that the error in Kadour-Chérif’s release had occurred in September, before strict security checks had begun.
He faced criticism over his handling of the case as he repeatedly refused to confirm when asked by the Prime Minister whether any other asylum seekers had been released by mistake after Kebatu.
Lammy said he learned about the mistake on Wednesday morning, but details were released shortly after concluding PMQs.
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