Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2015 to Question 214939, for each of the 13 offenders who had escaped or absconded from prison more than once (a) which offences led to the offender receiving the original prison sentence, (b) what length of sentence each was serving at the time of the escape or abscond, (c) what the offender's previous criminal history was, (d) what offences were committed by the offender following the escape or abscond from prison before their return to custody and (e) what additional prison sentence was given for each escape or abscond.

Last year, we took decisive action to protect the public by changing the policy by which prisoners may be transferred to open conditions. Absconds and escapes have reached record lows under this Government, but we take each incident seriously. As a result of a comprehensive review, we made major changes to tighten the eligibility for open prisons. Prisoners may no longer be transferred to open conditions or allowed out on temporary release if they have previously absconded, escaped, attempted to escape, or if they have failed to return or have re-offended whilst released on temporary licence, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

I cannot provide an answer to the question in the form requested, as the information could lead to identification of the individuals concerned. However, I can provide the following general information with regards to the 13 prisoners concerned.

c) The thirteen individuals had between 3 and 145 previous offences on their criminal record, averaging 35 offences. The thirteen individuals concerned were formally convicted for their offences; in the case of some of the thirteen, multiple offences are reflected in one conviction.

d) and e) Three of the individuals committed five further offences between them following their abscond/escape. Two individuals committed three burglary offences between them, resulting in further sentences of 4 months and 30 months respectively. The third individual committed two robberies following his escape, resulting in a sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) with a 30 month tariff. In addition, all but two of the 13 individuals received concurrent further sentences for the offences of abscond/escape, ranging from 4 months to 9 months.

These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.