More than 1,700 convicts have been released early in Leicestershire and Rutland in the past 18 months because of jail overcrowding.

That includes 315 inmates from HMP Leicester, 1,004 from HMP Glen Parva, in Wigston, and 153 from HMP Ashwell and 266 from HMP Stocken, in Oakham.

The figures – published by the Ministry of Justice – have led to accusations the Government is failing to deal with congested prisons.

Harborough MP Edward Garnier, a shadow justice minister, said: "The Government's early release scheme is clearly not a satisfactory way of dealing with the problem.

"It was brought in to relieve overcrowding, but in fact the prison population has continued to grow."

All of the releases – of which there were 134 from the counties' jails in October – are part of the Government's End of Custody Licence scheme. Established to free cells, it means inmates can be let out an additional 18 days earlier.

Ministers have said they will look to end the scheme when prison space allows, though official predictions of prisoner numbers show that more than 200,000 could be released across the UK in the next seven years.

An MoJ spokesman said those convicted of serious crimes were excluded from the ECL scheme.

He said only three per cent of those released had needed to be recalled for re-offending and that only one per cent had actually committed crimes during the ECL period.

However, Leicester South MP Peter Soulsby said providing more cells was not necessarily the solution to overcrowding. He argued that along with ECL, the Government had recently moved to raise the profile of community punishments.

"Community-based punishments are not the soft option, they are often more effective than simply banging someone up for a period," he said.