Twelve more prisoners released in error, with two still missing, says LammyJustice Secretary David Lammy told BBC Breakfast two of the 12 prisoners released are still at largeJustice Secretary David Lammy has said 12 prisoners have been accidentally released in the past three weeks, two of whom are still at large. It comes on top of the 91 prisoners who were freed by mistake between April and October in England and Wales. Speaking to the BBC, Lammy said there would always be a "human error" while prisons were using a paper-based system and that the situation would improve once a "completely digital system" was adopted. He said there had been "a spike" in accidental releases but added it was now on "a downward trajectory". Speaking to ITV later, Lammy said he had been "reassured" that the two prisoners at large were not violent or sex offenders."I'm not going to give details of those cases, because these are operational decisions made by the police, and you'll understand if they're about to arrest somebody they don't want me to blow the cover," he added. The subject of accidental releases gained attention after Hadush Kebatu, who was jailed after sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman while living in an asylum hotel in Epping, was mistakenly freed. Shortly after Kebatu's release, news emerged of two other prisoners who had been released in error - William Smith, who later handed himself in, and Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, who was rearrested. The cases led to the government implementing new security checks on those being let out of prison. The latest releases happened since 11 November, when Lammy gave a statement to the House of Commons, outlining the steps the government was taking to resolve the issue. The number of prisoners who have been let out in error rose by 128% last year, increasing from 115 in 2023-2024 to 262 in the following year. There were just over 57,000 releases of prisoners who had finished the custodial part of their sentences in England and Wales in 2024-25 - a rise of about 13% on the year before. Lammy acknowledged there had been a rise in numbers adding: "I want to bring it down but we have got a mountain to climb."He said the problem had been partly caused by the system losing 6,000 officers under the previous Conservative government.
