London - The British government last night expressed "deep regret" after the disclosure that 12 prisoners, including a sex offender, were wrongly allowed to leave jail under the home detention curfew scheme.
The Prisons Minister, Mr Paul Boateng, defended the use of tags, saying the mistakes represented just 0.06 per cent of those released from jail early under the scheme. However, his disclosure came a few weeks after the Home Office said it had lost track of 55 people who have absconded while under home detention curfew.