Prisoner Escapes
(asked on 18th June 2014) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Category A prisoners have escaped in each of the last 10 years; and how long after the escape each was recaptured or how long each such uncaptured prisoner has been at large.
Category A escapes remain extremely rare occurrences. The table below provides details of the two Category A escapes that have occurred in the last 10 years; both have been recaptured.
Table 1: Category A Escape occurring between April 2002 and March 2013
Year | Number of Category A escapers | Days spent unlawfully at large |
2011/12 | 1 | 418(1) |
2012/13 | 1 | 0(2) |
Neither prisoner escaped from a prison establishment.
(1) This prisoner escaped from prison contractor transport, through force of arms.
(2) This prisoner escaped from the witness box during a court hearing and was recaptured in less than 1 hour.
As a result of improved risk assessment procedures the number of prisoners absconding from open prisons has reduced significantly over the last 10 years. There were 225 absconds in 2013-14 compared to 1,301 in 2003-04.
Figures for the number of escapes and absconds, by prison, since 1995 are provided in the Prison Digest contained in the Prison and Probation Trusts Performance Statistics. This can be found at: