Govt ‘gripping’ prisons disaster as ‘unacceptable’ mistaken releases have risen, minister says | Politics Information

Ms Nandy, the tradition secretary, advised 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 launched.

She mentioned the variety of wrongful releases had gone up beneath the present authorities, from 17 a month beneath the Conservatives, to 22, which she mentioned was “completely unacceptable”.

Days earlier than Kaddour-Cherif’s launch, Mr Lammy had promised to implement additional checks on prisoner releases after migrant intercourse offender Hadush Kebatu was earlier launched by mistake.

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Concerning wrongful prisoner releases, Ms Nandy mentioned: “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 mentioned that can start with trying on the “antiquated” paper-based system nonetheless getting used, but in addition by constructing new prisons and extra checks to stop prisoners from being wrongly launched.

The 17 wrongful releases a month beneath the Conservative authorities that Ms Nandy used have been from January to June 2024, however within the 13 years earlier than that, that they had on common 61 wrongful releases – about 5 a month.

Ms Nandy defended Mr Lammy for failing to disclose he knew Kaddour-Cherif had been wrongly launched when requested 5 occasions at Prime Minister’s Questions by the Conservatives if any extra asylum seekers had been mistakenly launched after Kebatu.

She mentioned she didn’t settle for the justice secretary was “being evasive” and mentioned she may see him “weighing up in his mind” about what data to launch.

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

She mentioned: “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 press release to parliament in regards to the mistaken launch of Kaddour-Cherif within the coming week, Ms Nandy added.

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‘Get a grip!’: PMQs will get heated

Conservative shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge, who requested Mr Lammy the 5 questions at PMQs, referred to as for an investigation into whether or not the justice secretary had damaged the ministerial code by failing to be “transparent”.

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

Deceptive – or mendacity – to the Home of Commons is a sackable offence.