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A new justice performance board has been set up by the government to tackle the issues facing prisons in England and Wales, the justice secretary has said.

David Lammy is outlining the measures the government is doing to crackdown on the number of prisoners being mistakenly released.

He says the new body met for the first time yesterday and will be chaired by himself.

It will “give a comprehensive view of prisons and criminal court performance, including releases in error, to drive a step change in how we respond”.

He says the only way these errors will be reduced will be a “radical overhaul” of the prison system in England and Wales.

He also says that the independent review of mistaken releases of prisoners, being carried out by Dame Lynne Owens, will conclude in February next year.

Lammy says: “It will now include the adequacy of data collected and published on the in error, and we fully expect to uncover additional incidents.”

He also says he is establishing a new team of “data scientists, to review historic analysis in error, to understand what’s going wrong”.

The deputy PM also says he is working to improve problems in the court process, which he says is leading to wrongful releases.

He explains: “I will implement an urgent warrant query units supported by court experts so that prisoners can escalate queries and get rapid clarifications to reduce the risk of releases, from errors that emanate from the court system. 

“We are also issuing instructions to court staff to reinforce mandatory requirements for in-prison orders to be confirmed verbally with judges before finalizing, a measure which has been shared with the judiciary. 

“The court and the Prison Service are also scoping a joint exercise to look at live warrants, initially taking place within the London region. It will identify errors and ensure prisoners are subject to the correct warrants for fine accelerating upgrades.”

Lammy also points to a digital rapid response team he set up last week, which will look at digitalising services in prisons – most of which currently rely on paper documents still, and which Lammy has previously blamed as a source of errors.

Finally, he says he will look at “simplifying” the release process in prisons. 

Lammy argues that the government’s Sentencing Bill is about trying to “standardize how cases are treated”.

He says he will look if additional amendments are required.