Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the answer of 18 November 2025 to question 88988 on Prisoners, how many of the prisoners unlawfully detained following completion of their sentence in 2024-25 were detained between 5 July 2024 and 31 March 2025.

Release inaccuracy is yet another symptom of the prison system crisis inherited by this Government. While the overwhelming majority of offenders are released correctly, we are clamping down on those errors that do occur, and this includes unlawful detentions.

On 11 November, the Deputy Prime Minister announced a five-point action plan setting out initial steps which includes strengthening release checks across prisons and an independent inquiry will report its recommendations to prevent further inaccuracies. The Government is determined to fix release inaccuracies and ensure the public is properly protected.

The data requested comes from internal management information and is not fully Quality Assured. We are therefore unable to answer this question within cost limits.