Prisoner Release Checks

Lord Massey of Hampstead Excerpts

Wednesday 29th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

Dame Lynne Owens is going to start immediately. We hope to get the report back within eight weeks. She will be covering the facts of the case and will establish what went on. She will consider all our operational policies and whether they are fit for purpose, and make recommendations on how we can reduce the number of releases in error. Peers will have the opportunity to scrutinise the recommendations that she puts forward.

[Lord Massey of Hampstead (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome the Minister’s assurance that changes will be made to the release process to ensure accountability at the highest level in the prison—which is, of course, the governor. As we observe the rising error rate, which seems to be accelerating, and the rather ad hoc decision to give the deportee £500 to take his plane, does it give the Minister pause to wonder about the quality of training, and possibly management, of front-line staff in the prison system today?

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

It is a very good question about the training of our front-line staff—and our leadership, not just in prisons but in probation. I was fortunate that, before I was offered this job, I did a review for the previous Government into prison officer training. It was clear that there was lots of good training going on, but we really needed to up our game. Now I am in this job—and I will be at the allocations meeting coming up soon—this is something I want to get done. It is about not just improving the length of prison officers’ training when they join the service—that needs to be longer—but what and how they are taught. Let me give the noble Lord one example. We teach prison officers how to restrain prisoners who are being aggressive and potentially dangerous. We do that well, but we also need to teach them how to de-escalate problems by using the skills of talking and understanding the situation so that they can avoid using physical means. There is an awful lot more that needs to be done, and I will be interested to know whether Dame Lynne Owens talks about training in her report; I suspect she will, and I will happily take it on board.