Justice Secretary David Lammy has confirmed that 12 prisoners have been accidentally released in the past three weeks, with two still at large.
Speaking to the BBC, Lammy said that the oversight was due to the fact that the UK’s prisons were still operating on a ‘paper-based system’ and that these issues would be rectified once a digital-only system was adopted.
The latest figures come on top of the 91 prisoners who were freed by mistake between April and October. Lammy confirmed that this was a higher-than-average number of accidental releases, but that the figure was now on a downward trajectory.
“I’m not going to give details of those cases, because these are operational decisions made by the police, and you’ll understand if they’re about to arrest somebody they don’t want me to blow the cover,” he said.
In addition to legacy systems, prison overcrowding has become a serious political and societal issue. But while prison places are increasing with the construction of new prisons, staffing is not keeping pace. In 2019, there were roughly 3.7 prisoners per officer, in 2022 there were 3.8 prisoners per officer, and in 202,5 there were 3.9 prisoners per officer.
Between August 2022 and August 2025 the prison population increased by more than 6,000 prisoners – yet the number of prison officers grew by only around 1,000.
Despite these being decades-old problems, the latest figures will be embarrassing for Lammy and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has faced repeated questions around his leadership.
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