In Farnham, Bordon, Haslemere and Liphook, people expect the law to do what it says on the tin. When a court hands down a sentence, the public assumes it will be served. Yet that basic expectation is being shattered.

When dangerous offenders are released early or, worse still, by mistake, it is communities like ours — connected to London by the A3 and already contending with organised criminal activity — that carry the risk. Conversations with local police confirm what many residents already know: offenders exploit those transport links to move quickly between towns along the corridor. Every release error heightens that risk and chips away at public trust.

The accidental release of yet another prisoner last week would be shocking in isolation. The fact that it follows a string of similar incidents is deeply alarming. In the past year alone, 262 prisoners have been mistakenly released across England and Wales. That represents a staggering 128 percent increase under Labour, and the trend shows no sign of slowing.

These are not abstract statistics. Each mistaken release forces police to divert officers from neighbourhood patrols to manhunts that should never have been needed. Public confidence in the rule of law erodes as anxiety grows. Every hour spent tracking an offender who should still be in custody is an hour not spent keeping our streets safe.

A justice system that cannot keep track of its own prisoners cannot hope to keep the public safe.

The Government’s handling of the issue at last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions offered no reassurance. The Justice Secretary, David Lammy, struggled to explain why the numbers have risen so sharply and avoided giving a straight answer about how many foreign national offenders have been released in error. It was a performance that inspired neither confidence nor control.

Rather than managing the judicial system, the Government has allowed it to drift into crisis. What we are seeing now is not simply a clerical failure, but a failure of leadership.

This episode shows that the problem runs far deeper than the prison gates. It is part of a wider pattern across government. From border security to sentencing, the same story repeats itself: big promises, no delivery, and a refusal to take responsibility when things go wrong.

The inquiry into these releases must be thorough, swift and genuinely independent. It cannot become another Whitehall exercise in delay while public trust drains away. Ministers must set a clear deadline, publish their findings in full, and take personal responsibility for implementing real change.

Labour’s manifesto promised that prisons would “create pre-release plans for those leaving custody.” Recent events suggest they have taken that promise a little too literally.