Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of prisoners who have been released in error in each of the last three years.

Information on releases in error are published as part of the HM Prison and Probation Service Annual Digest. The latest publication can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-hm-prison-and-probation-service-digest-2017-to-2018

Releases in error are rare and in the vast majority of cases offenders are returned to custody very quickly. We work closely with the police to recapture those at large and investigate each incident thoroughly to see what lessons can be learned.