Michelle Donelan was caught overstating the number of prison officers today as the political row over Daniel Khalife’s escape escalates.
The former soldier escaped HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday morning while dressed in chef’s clothing by strapping himself to the underside of a delivery lorry.
The 21-year-old is accused of trying to spy for an enemy state, understood to be Iran, and plotting a fake bomb hoax at a military base.
His escape has provoked furious public debate, with ministers slammed over cuts and staff shortages amid claims that potentially dangerous inmates have been left in low-security prisons.
Khalife’s escape, in particular the equipment he used to secure himself to the underside of a lorry without detection, has raised serious concerns surrounding the security of England’s prisons.
Responding to concerns prompted by the former soldier’s escape, science and technology minister Michelle Donelan told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that the number of “frontline” prisons had “increased by 20% in the last year.”
But the fact-checkers at Full Fact were quick to point out that the figures provided by Donelan were far from accurate.
After reaching out to the Ministry of Justice, the charity revealed the figure quoted by the minister refers to the “increase in the headcount number of band 3-5 prison officers appointed in the year to June 2023.”
In-fact, the group concluded that the overall increase in the number of full-time equivalent band 3-5 officers was 3.2%.
The charity said: “Once officers leaving the prison service and other staff changes are taken into account, the overall increase in the number of full-time equivalent prison officers at this level over this period was 3.2%.
“If a minister makes a false or misleading claim on broadcast media they should take responsibility for ensuring it is appropriately corrected, and make efforts to ensure the correction is publicly available to anyone who might have heard the claim.”
It added: “The published data for the overall number of prison officers only shows the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) officers, not headcount as quoted by Ms Donelan. “