Serious shortcomings in the way inmates are assessed for parole have been revealed by the National Audit Office.
In a report, it says hearings to decide whether criminals should be freed or kept in jail are being delayed because prisoner risk assessments arrive late.
The documents, compiled by prison and probation staff, were late in 97 of 276 indeterminate sentence cases studied.
Ministers acknowledge the problem but say there is no evidence it is causing dangerous prisoners to be freed.
Prisons under pressure
The NAO says a 31% increase in the Parole Board's workload between 2005-06 and 2006-07 meant only a third of hearings in life sentence cases were on time and two thirds of oral hearings for life prisoners had been deferred at least once.
It said delays meant prisoners could end up staying in prison unnecessarily, piling pressure on an already stretched prisons system.
The report said additional time in custody because of deferred hearings and other administrative delays cost the taxpayer £3m between September 2006 and June 2007.
"If the Parole Board is to make decisions about the release of prisoners which are both fair and minimise the risk of harm to the public for the board to do its job properly, it must have access to complete information"
It added that the absence of important documents could undermine the Parole Board's assessment of whether or not prisoners posed a threat to the public.
The review also found the release rates for lifers arising from the board's decisions fell from 23% in 2005/06 to 15% in 2006/07 and from 50% to 36% for other offenders.
NAO chief Tim Burr said: "If the Parole Board is to make decisions about the release of prisoners which are both fair and minimise the risk of harm to the public for the board to do its job properly, it must have access to complete information.
"Currently that is not always happening."
'Target needed'
The NAO suggested the Ministry of Justice set a target for getting the paperwork in on time Justice Minister David Hanson said: "All parties involved in the parole process - Ministry of Justice, Parole Board, prisons and probation services - are facing problems in ensuring that Parole Board hearings take place on time.
"This is a whole system problem, exacerbated by prison population pressures."
He said extra resources for the probation services, combined with new offender management and parole processes would help improve the punctuality and quality of risk assessments in future.
Parole Board chief executive Christine Glenn said more needed to be done to reduce delays.
She said: "The board has also been concerned for some time about the timeliness and quality of the information on which it has to base its decisions and also about the rate of deferrals in some cases."
"Too often those charged with judging whether to release a prisoner have to do so without full knowledge of the most important facts about the offender"
Tory MP Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, called for "heads to be banged together" over the report's findings.
He said: "Too often those charged with judging whether to release a prisoner have to do so without full knowledge of the most important facts about the offender.
"This can lead to hearings being deferred and prisoners spending longer than necessary in crowded prisons, taking up places needed for other offenders.
"Of greater concern is that prisoners are released who should not be, putting the public at risk of harm."
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