Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2014 to Questions 208711 and 208714, for what reason there were releases in error where the offence is listed as Unknown in Table 1.
Releases in error are infrequent events with errors occurring in less than 1 in a 1000 releases. They are all taken seriously and each case is subject to investigation with follow up-action taken to tighten processes.
The following table shows the reason for release in error for those incidents listed in table 1 of the answer of 21 October 2014 where the prisoner has an offence type of “unknown”.
REASON | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 |
BAIL CONDITION NOT APPLIED | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
CALCULATION ERROR | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
ERROR AT COURT | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
FAIL TO APPEAR WARRANT OVERLOOKED | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
IDENTITY ISSUE | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
MISFILED WARRANT | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
RECALL ISSUE | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
RELEASE CONDITION NOT MET | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
REMAND ISSUE | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
UNCLEAR | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
UNRESOLVED IMMIGRATION ISSUES | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
The following table shows the specific offences that are included in the category “Other” for each year in table 1 of the answer of 21 October 2014.
Year Original offence of prisoner released in error.
2009/10 AWAITING EXTRADITION
2009/10 FAIL TO SURRENDER
2009/10 VIOLENT DISORDER
2009/10 BREACH SOPO
2009/10 CRIMINAL DAMAGE
2009/10 OTHER
2009/10 HOLDING WARRANT
2009/10 NON PAYMENT OF COUNCIL TAX
2010/11 FINE
2010/11 POSSESSION OFFENSIVE WEAPON
2010/11 OFFENSIVE COMMUNICATION
2010/11 FAIL TO SURRENDER
2010/11 ARSON
2010/11 FAIL TO SURRENDER
2010/11 IMMIGRATION DETAINEE
2010/11 AFFRAY
2010/11 MALICIOUS CALLS
2010/11 DAMAGE
2010/11 BREACH BAIL
2010/11 BREACH RESTRAINING ORDER
2010/11 FTA
2010/11 FAIL TO SURRENDER
2011/12 EXCESS ALC
2011/12 BREACH CSO
2011/12 ENTERING INTO ILLEGAL CONTRACT
2011/12 USING THREATENING ABUSIVE ETC
2011/12 POSS OFFENSIVE WEAPON
2011/12 BREACH CSO
2011/12 BREACH ORDER
2011/12 FAIL TO SURRENDER
2011/12 BREACH SUSPENDED SENTENCE
2011/12 BREACH LICENCE
2011/12 POSS OFFENSIVE WEAPON
2011/12 BREACH MOLESTATION ORDER
2011/12 FAIL TO SURRENDER
2011/12 HOLDING WARRANT
2012/13 CHILD CRUELTY
2012/13 POSSESSION OF PROHIBITED FIREARM
2012/13 DESTROY/DAMAGE PROPERTY
2012/13 OFFENSIVE WEAPON
2012/13 SHOPLIFTING COMMON ASSAULT
2012/13 BREACH OF SUPERVISION ORDER
2013/14 IMMIGRATION DETAINEE
2013/14 POSSESSION OFFENSIVE WEAPON
2013/14 MONEY LAUNDERING
2013/14 FINES
2013/14 CRIMINAL DAMAGE
2013/14 BREACH RESTRAINING ORDER
2013/14 ABSCOND
2013/14 CRIMINAL DAMAGE
2013/14 DEATH BY CARELESS DRIVING
2013/14 DETAINEE
2013/14 BREACH OF BAIL CONDITIONS
2013/14 THREATENING TO KILL
The following table shows the number of offenders not returned to custody as of 20 November 2014 by offence type for those releases in error shown in table 1 of the answer of 21 October 2014.
Offence Type | Number not returned to custody (as of 20 October 2014) |
Burglary | 1 |
Other Offences | 2 |
Not known/not recorded | 4 |
For the 7 offenders remaining at large as of 20th November 2014, the table below shows how much of each such offender's sentence was left to serve.
Offender | Period left to serve of custodial period |
HMP Manchester | No time left to serve of custodial period – released from IS91** |
HMP Durham | 9 days remaining to serve |
HMP Norwich | No time left to serve of custodial period – released from IS91** |
HMP Dorchester | No time left to serve of custodial period – released from IS91** |
HMP Elmley | 7 days remaining to serve |
HMP Hull | 3 days remaining to serve |
HMP Cardiff | 1 day remaining to serve |
**IS91 is an Immigration Detention Warrant to detain a person of interest and is served at the end of the custodial period; once the IS91 is served the person becomes a Detainee.
The two cases of release in error listed as “outstanding absconders” in Table 3 of the answer of 21 October 2014 have both been returned to custody.