§ Dr. SpinkTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners on temporary leave from prison have escaped in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. Peter LloydResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Dr. Robert Spink, dated 20 April 1993:
The Home Secretary has asked me to write to you in response to your Parliamentary Question asking how many prisoners on temporary leave from prison have escaped in each of the last five years.Prisoners who are released temporarily on the authority of the governor under Prison Rule 6 are deemed to be lawfully at large. If they fail to return to the prison at the time stipulated by the governor they are then unlawfully at large and classified as temporary release failures but are not considered to have escaped, which requires overcoming physical or mechanical restraint or overpowering escorting staff.I regret that information on the number of prisoners who are temporary release failures was not recorded centrally prior to 1 January 1990. Information derived from the number of incidents reported to the Incident Management Support Unit, a part of the Directorate of Custody, indicates the following number of prisoners who failed to return from approved temporary release:-
Numbers 1990 1,544 1991 2,290 1992 3,280 11993 791 1 To 31 March 1993. The majority of temporary release failures either return to custody or are apprehended.