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Prisoner Escapes (Ministerial Correction)

Volume 506: debated on Friday 26 February 2010

An error has been identified in the written answer given to the hon. and learned Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Grieve), 10 November 2009, Official Report, columns 216-17W. The full answer should have been as follows:

The table below shows information relating to three prisoners still unlawfully at large for murder who have absconded from open prisons in England and Wales since April 2004.

Prisoners still unlawfully at large since April 2004 serving an index offence of murder.

Prisoner 1Prisoner 2Prisoner 3

Date of offence

March 1984

25/04/1982

27/08/1988

Date convicted to life imprisonment

12/12/1984

08/10/1982

31/10/1989

Length of sentence

Life

Life

Life

Date of re-categorisation to category D

01/09/2004

08/09/2005

01/02/2009

Date of transfer to open conditions

01/09/2004

26/10/2005

21/01/2009

Date of abscond

17/05/2005 HMP Sudbury

10/01/2007 HMP Sudbury

31/08/2009 HMP Ford

Was prisoner on temporary release at time of abscond

No

No

No

Number of offences against prison discipline during this period of custody

30*

29*

39*

Note on table:

*All of these would have been proven and subject to disciplinary punishment.

These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system

It is obviously in general much in the public interest that the names of those escaping and absconding should be made public, but there can be operational or other reasons for not doing so in specific cases. I will write to the hon. and learned Member for Beaconsfield with the name of the offender when the police have confirmed that there is no difficulty in placing this in the public domain.

Over 96 per cent. of prisoners who abscond are re-captured and returned to custody. On recapture the prisoner will be returned to a closed prison and referred to the police for consideration for prosecution for having been unlawfully at large.