Prisoner Escapes: Immigration
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many escaped prisoners are currently at large; and what is the immigration status of each of them.
Answered by Jake Richards
Data on escapes from HMPPS custody is published annually in the HMPPS Annual Digest, with the latest data published up to March 2025. Information on more recent escapes will be published in subsequent Digests, with the next release, covering escapes to March 2026, due for publication in July.
The Ministry of Justice is obliged to comply with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. Specifically, it requires producers of official statistics to ensure that no indication of the substance of a statistical report is made public prior to publication.
Public protection is our top priority. When a prisoner escapes, police are immediately notified and are responsible for locating the offender. The majority of absconders are quickly recaptured and returned to custody. Those who abscond face serious consequences, including being returned to closed prison conditions, where they may serve up to two additional years on conviction.
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