Prisoners' Release

(asked on 18th November 2014) - View Source

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.


Answered by
Andrew Selous Portrait
Andrew Selous
Second Church Estates Commissioner
This question was answered on 13th January 2015

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.

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