Releases in error

A prisoner is released in error if they are wrongly discharged from a prison or court when they should have remained in custody, where the prisoner has not deliberately played a part in the error (i.e. the prisoner had no intent of escaping).

Examples include misplaced warrants for imprisonment or remand, recall notices not acted upon, sentence miscalculation or discharging the wrong person on escort.

The rise in releases in error in 2024-25 is believed to be linked to the requirement on Offender Management Units to digest and implement a range of operational and legislative changes. The rise in this year also partly reflects a number of offenders who were released in error in the first tranche of SDS40 due to an issue with a repealed Breach of Restraining Order offence, which was swiftly identified and corrected with legislation. These offenders were all rearrested and returned to custody.

Some releases in error incidents are only identified after the end of the reporting period for the financial year and so haven't previously been included within the published statistics. In this publication we have additionally reported those release in error incidents that were reported after the end of the reporting period, from April 2022 onwards.

The data source for this measure and more detailed information can be found in the HM prison and probation service annual digest publication.

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