David Lammy admits 12 more prisoners freed by mistake in last 3 weeks

David Lammy has confirmed that 12 further prisoners have been released in error since he last updated Parliament less than three weeks ago, with two still at large, as the crisis of mistaken early releases in England and Wales continues. Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday morning, Justice Secretary Mr Lammy acknowledged the latest blunders had occurred in the period following his Commons statement on November 12.

The admissions come amid mounting criticism of the Ministry of Justice after a series of high-profile cases, including the erroneous release of Epping sex offender Hadush Kebatu in October and the subsequent accidental freeing of an Algerian sex offender and a fraudster from HMP Wandsworth. Official figures published last month revealed that 91 prisoners were released by mistake between April 1 and October 31 this year – an average of almost three every week.

Following his Sky News appearance, David Lammy told BBC Breakfast this morning: “Well, I said to Parliament a few weeks ago, I released data at that point, and there had been 91 releases in error up to that point, there have been 12 since then, two are currently at large.”

He said he was “pleased that the trend is downwards” after he put some improvements in place in the system.

He was subsequently pushed over the downward trend point by Emma Barnett during a terse clash on Radio 4’s Today programme.

Challenged over whether his claim was accurate, Mr Lammy said: “Please let me finish the point.”

Ms Barnett said: “You’re not answering my question” and he snapped: “If you let me finish the point. I’ve also said that there is caution around this, because it’s a paper based system. We have junior officers doing this work.

“I’m still waiting for Dame Lynn Owens to report and to act on her recommendations, and there are still errors happening in the system.”

The revelations emerged just hours before Mr Lammy was due to deliver a major speech on clearing the courts backlog, in which he is expected to propose significant curbs on the use of jury trials for less serious offences.

Appearing on BBC Breakfast earlier, the Justice Secretary insisted juries remain “fundamental” to the justice system but suggested changes were needed to prevent delays in rape and murder cases.

He said: “I want to be absolutely clear, juries remain fundamental to our system. But should we be asking our magistrates to deal with more cases? That’s one of the questions that I’m looking at and I’ll be answering this afternoon.”

Mr Lammy highlighted so-called “triable either-way” offences, which currently allow defendants to choose a Crown Court jury trial even when the maximum sentence is relatively low.

He explained: “There’s a group of cases where you can get up to five years. Generally speaking, they’re called triable either-way cases, and also where a defendant can opt to have a jury. What I mean by that is, if you steal an iPhone this afternoon from Currys, should you be able to opt to have a jury? The trial may take two days, and inevitably that will cause further delay for more serious and egregious crimes like rape or murder.”

The Justice Secretary said he would expand magistrates’ sentencing powers and reconsider whether defendants in certain cases should retain the automatic right to jury trial.

Victim groups have previously expressed alarm at the prison release errors. The 14-year-old victim of Hadush Kebatu said she felt “so scared and so anxious” after learning of his mistaken release.

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said: “Yet again, dangerous offenders are walking the streets because of Labour’s incompetence. The public deserves far better than this catalogue of failures.”

The Ministry of Justice declined to provide details of the two most recent erroneous releases, citing ongoing police efforts to locate the individuals.

A spokesperson said: “We are urgently investigating these incidents and have already introduced additional checks to prevent further mistakes.”

Mr Lammy is expected to publish a white paper on court reform later on Tuesday.