Justice Secretary David Lammy has said 12 prisoners have been accidentally released in the last three weeks, two of whom remain at large.
He joins the 91 prisoners who were released by mistake between April and October.
Speaking to the BBC, Lammy said there would always be “human error” as long as prisons used a paper-based system and the situation would improve once a “fully digital system” was adopted.
He said there had been “a spike” in accidental releases, but added it was now on “a downward trajectory”.
The issue of accidental releases attracted attention after Hadush Kebatu, who was jailed after sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman while living in an asylum hotel in Epping, was mistakenly released, prompting the government to implement new controls on those released from prison.
The number of prisoners who were mistakenly released rose sharply last year, rising from 115 in 2023-2024 to 262 the following year.
Lammy acknowledged there had been an “increase” in numbers, adding: “I want to bring it down. We have a mountain to climb.”
He said the problem had been caused in part by the system losing 6,000 officers under the previous Conservative government.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has previously attributed the rise in figures to “confusion created by Labour’s failed early release scheme”.
