91 prisoners freed in error over past seven months

A total of 91 prisoners were freed by mistake between the start of April and the end of October, the latest Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures show.

The figures come as ministers face mounting pressure over a series of high-profile manhunts, with Justice Secretary David Lammy issuing an "unequivocal apology" and telling the Commons on Tuesday that the "release process requires a radical overhaul".

He also confirmed there are three prisoners, mistakenly freed from custody, who remain at large and prison chiefs are investigating "a further potential release in error on the 3rd of November" who may still be at large.

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Of the three confirmed cases, two were released in August and December last year and a third in June this year. One is a foreign national.

Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was arrested on Friday after a police search following his release from HMP Wandsworth in south London last week, which Scotland Yard said officers only found out about on Tuesday.

His recapture was partly down to investigative work by Sky's national correspondent, Tom Parmenter, who tracked Kaddour-Cherif down to Finsbury Park in north London before he handed himself in to police.

Convicted fraudster Billy Smith, 35, handed himself back in on Thursday after being accidentally freed from the same jail on Monday.

Meanwhile Hadush Kebatu, the small-boat sex offender, was arrested last month on the third day of a manhunt after he was mistakenly freed from prison.

The now-deported Ethiopian migrant was at the heart of protests in Epping and had been serving a 12-month sentence at HMP Chelmsford since September.

On Friday, stronger security checks were announced for prisons and an independent investigation was launched into releases in error following the blunder in Kebatu's case.

The number of these types of prison release errors has risen recently, with 262 instances between March 2024 and March 2025 - a 128% increase on 115 in the previous 12 months.

Of the 262 cases, 87 involved prisoners whose main offence was violence against the person, and three whose main offence was a sexual offence.

Revealing the latest figures to the Commons, Mr Lammy admitted "prisons throughout the country are underfunded, they're understaffed, and they're operating under relentless strain" but that releases were "a complex issue".

The justice secretary added: "I'm clear that we have a mountain to climb in response".

He announced a "new justice performance board" which will review processes within prisons and criminal courts.

Prison release errors can include misplaced warrants for imprisonment or remand, sentence miscalculations or can be as a result of mistakes by courts or other authorities, the Ministry of Justice said.

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Mr Lammy also suggested that mistakes within the prison system were down to cuts under the previous Conservative governments.

He said frontline prison officers were cut by a quarter between 2010 and 2017, adding that "mistakes happen in those circumstances".

But shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick was scathing, describing Mr Lammy as presiding over "a complete and utter farce", adding that he is "so clueless, he's literally lost track of how many prisoners he's lost".

"The public are being endangered as this circus rumbles on week after week, with no end in sight. When will he put a stop to it?" he added.

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