Two prisoners launched by mistake are are nonetheless at giant, David Lammy tells BBC

The Justice Secretary, David Lammy, said he didn’t want to give a ‘running commentary’ on the hunt for the two prisoners

• Two prisoners who were released by mistake remain at large across the UK, Justice Secretary David Lammy has revealed.
• The Justice Secretary admitted there have been 14 total accidental releases since November, including two classified as violent or sex offenders.
• This latest figure adds to the 91 accidental releases that occurred between April 1 and October 31 of this year.
• Mr Lammy said that the prison service has made some ‘system improvements’ and claimed that he is “pleased that the trend is downwards.”
• He declined to provide a “running commentary” when pressed for details on the location of the two prisoners currently at large.
• The large number of errors had previously been described as “shocking” by Downing Street after more than 90 inmates were wrongly set free earlier this year. The issue was initially thrown into the spotlight following the high-profile jail blunder involving Hadush Kebatu.
• To address the problem, the Justice Secretary announced a £10 million investment to upgrade prison systems. This funding will be used to roll out new AI-powered tools to help frontline staff accurately calculate complex sentences.
• The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has noted that one reason for the errors is that under-pressure prison staff must wade through more than 500 pages of paperwork. The complex paper-based system increases the likelihood of mistakes.
• Official statistics show that approximately 800 prisoners were released in error during the previous Conservative government’s tenure. The annual figures steadily rose from just 42 incorrect releases in 2012 to reach 115 in the 2023/24 period.
• In the current 2024/25 fiscal year – the first under a Labour government – the number of incorrect releases increased sharply to 262.