Prisoners' Release
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether any disciplinary action has been taken against (a) prison staff or (b) senior officials due to the erroneous release of prisoners since 1 April 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards
Releases in error have been increasing for several years and are another symptom of the prison system crisis inherited by this Government.
While the overwhelming majority of offenders are released correctly, we are clamping down on those releases in error that do occur – including through improved staff training and establishing a new specialist unit. A joint protocol between HMPPS and NPCC is in place, to ensure effective and timely communication between partner agencies when an individual is released in error to rearrest them as quickly as possible.
We have gripped this chaos – by building more prison places, ending the last Government’s early release scheme, being transparent with the public, immediately making changes to sentences to ease pressure on the system and now, taking landmark reforms through our Sentencing Bill to make sure that prisons never run out of places again.
The Ministry of Justice cannot provide the information requested. National conduct and discipline data for prison staff is published as part of the HMPPS Staff Equalities Report Official Statistics release available on gov.uk. The latest available data covers the period up to March 2024. Data for the period up to March 2025 is scheduled for publication in November 2025.
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