Govt ‘gripping’ prisons crisis as ‘unacceptable’ mistaken releases have risen, minister says

The government is “gripping” the prisons crisis, minister Lisa Nandy told Sky News, as she said it is “unacceptable” the number of prisoners being wrongly released has risen.

Ms Nandy, the culture secretary, told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that Justice Secretary David Lammy has made a senior appointment “to make sure we really grip this” after it was revealed this week two prisoners had been mistakenly released.

She said the number of wrongful releases had gone up under the current government, from 17 a month under the Conservatives, to 22, which she said was “completely unacceptable”.

Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was recaptured on Friday, with his arrest witnessed by Sky News, while Billy Smith handed himself in.

Days before Kaddour-Cherif’s release, Mr Lammy had promised to implement further checks on prisoner releases after migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu was earlier released by mistake.

Regarding wrongful prisoner releases, Ms Nandy said: “Even one is too many, and the justice secretary is gripping this by appointing Dame Lynne Owens, who is the former director of the National Crime Agency, to make sure that we really grip this.”

She said that will begin with looking at the “antiquated” paper-based system still being used, but also by building new prisons and more checks to prevent prisoners from being wrongly released.

The 17 wrongful releases a month under the Conservative government that Ms Nandy used were from January to June 2024, but in the 13 years before that, they had on average 61 wrongful releases – about five a month.

Ms Nandy defended Mr Lammy for failing to reveal he knew Kaddour-Cherif had been wrongly released when asked five times at Prime Minister’s Questions by the Conservatives if any more asylum seekers had been mistakenly released after Kebatu.

She said she did not accept the justice secretary was “being evasive” and said she could see him “weighing up in his mind” about what information to release.

Ms Nandy added Kaddour-Cherif was not an asylum seeker, which is what the Tories had specifically asked about.

She said: “I really strongly feel that if you, when you speak about matters of public importance, you have to take great care in order to make sure that that information is completely accurate.”

Mr Lammy will make a statement to parliament about the mistaken release of Kaddour-Cherif in the coming week, Ms Nandy added.

Conservative shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge, who asked Mr Lammy the five questions at PMQs, called for an investigation into whether the justice secretary had broken the ministerial code by failing to be “transparent”.

He told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips the minister “couldn’t have misled the House because he didn’t answer the question at all”.

Misleading – or lying – to the House of Commons is a sackable offence.