Overview
- Officials now indicate three prisoners are believed to be at large after revealing one of four reported cases was miscounted.
- David Lammy is due in the Commons for questions on how many inmates have been wrongly released since April and how many remain unaccounted for.
- The government has launched an independent investigation, introduced stronger release checks, dispatched technology teams and pledged 14,000 additional prison places.
- Prisons minister Lord James Timpson said the process relies on boxes of paperwork, manual sentence calculations and outdated systems, with options such as an AI chatbot under consideration.
- Recent incidents include Brahim Kaddour-Cherif’s October 29 release from HMP Wandsworth before his arrest on Friday, fraudster Billy Smith surrendering after a clerical error, and Hadush Kebatu’s October 24 wrongful release followed by deportation; official data record 262 mistaken releases to March 2025, including 90 violent or sexual offenders.