To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how his Department defines a prisoner in an open prison who absconds and fails to return. (189817)

Prisoners are classed as ‘absconders’ if they absent themselves from Prison Service custody without lawful authority and without overcoming physical security restraints such as that provided by fence, locks, bolts and bars, a secure vehicle, handcuffs or direct supervision of staff. This latter category are classed as escapes.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether there have been any changes to the criteria for recording absconds or other unauthorised absences from open prisons since 1997. (189818)

There have been no changes to the criteria for recording absconds or other unauthorised absences from open prisons since 1997.