£29m spent on police cell prisoners

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The Tories said the taxpayer was picking up the bill for the Government's failure to fix the prisons crisis.

And prison reform groups condemned a "shocking" waste of public money.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "This is a direct consequence of the Government's abject failure to address the prisons overcrowding crisis.

"Not only are dangerous offenders having to be released because of the failure but now custody suites up and down the country are bearing the brunt at a massive cost to the taxpayer. The public are picking up the bill for the Government's failure."

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "This is a shocking amount of public money to throw away on the inappropriate use of police cells to bail out overcrowded jails.

"The price of this panic-buying has been a waste of police time, a continuing rise in prison numbers and high reconviction rates.

"If government had made a sensible plan to invest in drug and alcohol treatment for addicts, court diversion schemes for the mentally ill and effective community sentences, we would have seen both prison numbers and crime drop like a stone."

Emergency measures introduced in June allowed thousands of criminals to be released up to 18 days early.

Figures published at the end of August showed criminals released early had committed a further 56 offences. It was also revealed that 43 offenders were on the run after failing to meet the terms of the emergency measures.