Image source, House of Commons / PA Wire

As we mention in the post below, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy says he was "not equipped with all of the detail" to tell MPs about the prisoner releases during yesterday's PMQs.

Here's a quick refresher on what happened.

Deputising for the absent Keir Starmer, Lammy led the PMQs session.

During the session, shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge asked Lammy five times whether any asylum-seeking offender had been accidentally released from prison since Hadush Kebatu was let out last month.

Lammy refused to answer, but as the session ended, the Met Police released a statement revealing a foreign prisoner - later confirmed not to be an asylum seeker - had been released by mistake last Wednesday, with the force informed on Tuesday.

Cartlidge raised this in the Chamber, and Lammy again refused to respond.

About an hour later, the justice secretary issued a statement saying he was "outraged and appalled" by the latest mistaken release, and the BBC learned Lammy had been briefed on the incident before PMQs.

This led the opposition to call for Lammy to return to the House of Commons to explain why he had not revealed the information.

Then, in a statement last night, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said facts about the case were still emerging as Lammy entered PMQs, and that the justice secretary "had not been accurately informed of key details including the offender’s immigration status".

Continuing now with more comments from David Lammy, who is asked why he did not tell the House of Commons about the situation when questioned at yesterday's PMQs.

Lammy says he first found out about the situation on Wednesday morning - and was "not equipped with all of the detail" during PMQs to tell MPs that a prisoner was released in error from Wandsworth prison.

"I took the judgement that it is important when updating the House and the country about serious matters like this that you have all the detail.

"The danger is you end up misleading the House and general public.

"That is the judgement I took, I think it is the right judgement," he says.

Image source, UK Pool

David Lammy has just spoken to the media.

He says the prisoner release that "has caused concern this week" happened before the tougher checks he introduced after the mistaken release of Kebatu.

Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was mistakenly released on 29 October.

"The other prisoner was a court mistake not in fact a prison mistake," he adds, referring to the case of William Smith.

However, he goes on to say the rate of mistaken releases is "too high", so he has asked Dame Lynne Owens to carry out a review.

He says the prison system is "in crisis" and there is a need to "bear down on this" - but says there is a mountain to climb.

We’re now hearing from the Liberal Democrat MP for Woking - the constituency where Surrey Police said Will Smith has links.

"I’m pleased that William Smith from Woking is now back in custody," Will Foster says.

"Our prisons shouldn't be relying on an honours system of wrongfully released people handing themselves back into prison."

He says he’s "dismayed" that despite reaching out to the Ministry of Justice yesterday, he still hasn’t received any briefings from the department.

"The government still has serious questions to answer - they need to explain why he was wrongly released in the first place and rebuild the public’s confidence in our broken justice system."

Image source, EPA

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch says it’s "quite clear" David Lammy had answers "which he refused to give" during prime minister’s questions yesterday.

"I think that all of that is going to come out in the wash," Badenoch says during a visit to a factory.

She says that, instead of dealing with the situation, Lammy spent time "debating whether or not he wore a suit, bought a new suit".

"This is a distraction from the serious issue about crime in our country," Badenoch says.

When asked whether Lammy should resign, she replies: "Let's find out exactly what he knew and when, and why he refused to answer a very, very simple question despite being asked it five times."

• You can look at our timeline to refresh what happened in PMQs on Wednesday

We started the day with two prisoners missing from HMP Wandsworth - and now we’re down to just one.

• William "Billy" Smith, who was mistakenly released on 3 November - the same day he was jailed for 45 months for multiple fraud offences - handed himself in to prison staff earlier today
• However, police are still searching for Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, who was mistakenly released on 29 October
• Following Smith’s return to prison, David Lammy has called the "spike" in mistaken releases "unacceptable", saying the government is modernising prisons and "replacing paper with digital tools"
• Robert Jenrick, shadow justice secretary, posted a video outside the Ministry of Justice asking "where is David Lammy?", saying the deputy prime minister refused to return to Parliament on Wednesday and has refused to speak to the media this morning

Image source, Robert Jenrick/X

Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, says David Lammy has got several questions to answer.

In the clip, recorded outside the Ministry of Justice, Jenrick asks "where is David Lammy?", pointing out that the justice secretary hasn't given media interviews this morning.

He says there are three questions Lammy needs to answer:

1. How many prisoners have been accidentally released this year?
2. How many of them are violent or sexual offenders?
3. And how many are still at large, roaming our streets?

While David Lammy hasn't spoken to the media today, Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones spoke to BBC Breakfast this morning. She said Lammy was on a visit "breaking new ground" on building a new prison, and the media will hear from him later today.

Angus Thompson
Live reporter

More from Prison Officers' Association national chair Mark Fairhurst now.

He tells me that prison staff are left to make complex calculations with pen and paper - and sometimes without training - to decide when to release inmates.

Fairhurst says staff are under immense pressure to recalculate sentences under the early release scheme, which allows eligible prisoners to be freed after serving 40% of their fixed-term sentence.

Fairhurst says administration staff must take into account a paper trail of factors, such as additional convictions or warrants, and whether the sentence was based on concurrent or consecutive convictions.

"And manually, with paper and pen, I've got to work out 40% release point," he says.

"If you haven’t been trained correctly in either sentence calculation or discharge procedures, you are prone to error."

Justice Secretary David Lammy is pledging to modernise the prison system with a digital overhaul, after his junior minister Alex Davies-Jones told BBC Breakfast staff had to deal with "reams of paper" in making their decisions.

Claire Ellison
BBC News

As we've been reporting, police are still searching for a second prisoner who was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth.

Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was set free on 29 October, after what the national chair of the Prison Officers' Association believes was an error when he returned from court.

“There should have been no way he was released, but it’s my understanding that there was a mix up with the warrants," Mark Fairhurst tells the BBC.

"So when that person returned from court, we didn’t actually have the authority to hold him in custody, because we didn’t have a further warrant which outlined those further charges.

"So somewhere along the way, there’s been a clerical error.”

Becky Morton
Political reporter

Image source, UK Parliament

Justice Secretary David Lammy is under growing pressure after two prisoners were released from the same London jail by mistake.

Lammy, who is also deputy prime minister, had promised to introduce the "strongest checks ever" to prevent further errors after the accidental release of migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu from Chelmsford prison in Essex last month.

But on Wednesday it emerged two more men - including an Algerian sex offender - had been mistakenly released from Wandsworth prison over the past week.

MPs will not have a chance to press Lammy over the issue until Tuesday, when the House of Commons returns after a short recess.

Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said Lammy has "got to get a grip", describing the situation as "a total shambles".

• You can read on in my news story

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

The images we’ve seen will make some pretty uncomfortable viewing in government.

Yes, they’ll be pleased that one of these men is back in police custody. I suspect they won’t get much credit for it given that he handed himself in.

Those images, of somebody sort of deciding when they go back to prison, is not what the government want to see at all.

There is no doubt that this is a big headache for the Ministry of Justice.

Image source, PA Media

Both Kaddour-Cherif and Smith were released in error from HMP Wandsworth in London.

Built in 1851, the complex was originally constructed for fewer than 1,000 prisoners.

A report by the Independent Monitoring Board in August 2024 found inmate numbers in the "cramped, squalid" prison had grown to 1,513. Foreign nationals make up about half the prison's population.

"Wings were chaotic and staff across most units were unable to confirm where all prisoners were during the working day," the report said.

In April, HM Inspectorate of Prisons noted the population had reduced by 150, and other "limited and fragile" improvements had been made.

In 2023, the prison also made headlines after former British soldier Daniel Khalife escaped by clinging to the underside of a lorry.

Image source, PA Media via ITV

Policing commentator Danny Shaw calls the video footage of William Smith handing himself back in "farcical".

Describing Smith "saunter[ing] up the steps" and having a cigarette outside, Shaw says: "This does not look like a system that is robust, secure, that knows what it's doing when a prisoner turns up just like that."

Speaking of the ongoing manhunt for Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, Shaw says the Metropolitan Police has had a "number of teams" working on that overnight.

They are currently trying to trace the convicted sex offender's movements "step-by-step" following his release six days ago. Shaw says police sources have told him this head start is their "main battle".

"This guy could be anywhere really by now," he adds.

• As a reminder, the Metropolitan Police weren't informed of Kaddour-Cherif's mistaken release until six days after he was freed from HMP Wandsworth

Image source, Surrey Police

Back in custody - William (Billy) Smith, 35

• A British national, Smith was sentenced to nearly four years in prison on Monday 3 November after being convicted of multiple fraud offences
• He has links to Woking and was last seen wearing a navy Nike tracksuit and black trainers
• He was released due to a clerical error at court level, when his custodial sentence was mistakenly entered as a suspended sentence
• Smith has handed himself in on 6 November.

Image source, Met Police

Still at large - Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24

• An Algerian national, he was convicted of indecent exposure relating to an incident in 2024 and sentenced to an 18-month community order and placed on the sex offenders' register for five years, according to the Metropolitan Police
• In September, he was arrested after failing to comply with sex offender requirements
• Kaddour-Cherif is known to use other variations of his name - including Ibrahim - and is believed to have links to the Tower Hamlets and Westminster areas in London

• He was not an asylum seeker, but entered the UK legally on a visa in 2019
• After overstaying that visa by 2020, he was in the initial stages of the deportation process
• He was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth on 29 October

11:26 on 6 November: Surrey Police says William Smith has handed himself in to HMP Wandsworth.

21:05 on 5 November: The Ministry of Justice releases a statement, saying David Lammy "had not been accurately informed of key details" when he was in PMQs.

16:41 on 5 November: The Metropolitan Police confirm a search is under way for Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif.

16:06 on 5 November: Surrey Police launch a separate manhunt after it was made aware of a second prisoner, William Smith, being released by mistake on 3 November.

13:41 on 5 November: Lammy released a statement where he expressed he was "outraged and appalled by the foreign criminal wanted by the police" and promised that an "urgent manhunt" was under way.

12:43 on 5 November: Cartlidge told Parliament that a second imprisoned migrant had been mistakenly freed - Lammy declined to respond.

12:00 on 5 November: Lammy, covering for Keir Starmer during Prime Minister's Questions, repeatedly refused to answer when asked by shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge whether any more asylum seekers had been wrongly released since the high-profile case of an Ethiopian sex offender last month.

Around 11:45 on 5 November: The Tories reportedly find out that a wrongly released prisoner is at large.

Overnight into 5 November: Justice Secretary David Lammy is informed about the accidental release.

13:00 on 4 November: The Prison Service informs the Metropolitan Police that a prisoner had been released by mistake.

29 October: A 24-year-old Algerian man is released in error from HMP Wandsworth.

Image source, PA

Justice Secretary David Lammy has posted a new statement after news that William Smith has handed himself in.

Confirming Smith is "back in custody", Lammy repeats points he has made before, calling the "spike" in mistaken releases "unacceptable".

"We're modernising prison systems - replacing paper with digital tools to cut errors," he says, adding that the government is working with police to recapture Brahim Kaddour-Cherif.

William Smith, 35, who we've just learned has handed himself back in to the prison after being mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth, was initially jailed earlier the same day he was released.

As we've been reporting, he was sentenced to 45 months for multiple fraud offences at Croydon Crown Court on Monday 3 November.

Below is the statement from Surrey Police announcing that William Smith is back in custody:

We are cancelling our appeal to help find wanted 35-year-old William Smith who was released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Monday, 3 November.

Smith handed himself into HMP Wandsworth today (6 November).

Thank you to everyone who shared our appeal. We now ask that any posts or photos are removed.

Image source, Surrey Police

Surrey Police say William (Billy) Smith, who was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth on Monday, is back in custody.

The Metropolitan Police are still searching for another prisoner released in error, Brahim Kaddour-Cherif.

Stick with us as we bring you more.