Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been wrongly released from HM Prisons since July 2024 were still at large on 1 November 2025.

As the Deputy Prime Minister set out in his statement on 11 November, on that day we were aware of three releases in error from prison where the offenders were at large. We were also investigating a further case of a potential release in error on 3 November of a person who may have still been at large.

Lord Timpson in his statement on 13 November confirmed that the potential case was indeed a release in error and the individual was swiftly returned to policy custody on the same day and returned to prison the following morning and that one of the three releases in error has now been classified as a lawful release.

These are operational matters; the position changes quickly. We will not offer further running commentary on Releases in Error; further breakdowns will be published in the normal way through our regular statistics and Dame Lynne Owens will be looking at data and transparency as part of her independent investigation.