Junior justice minister Fred Teeven has told MPs he will do his utmost to track down 12,500 convicted criminals who still have to serve a prison term.

Most of them have not gone to prison because they failed to turn up at their trial. Attendance in court is not compulsory in the Netherlands. A small percentage did not return to jail after being allowed out on leave, Teeven said.

Some 80% of the missing crooks face a sentence of less than three months, with just 4% heading for a year or more in jail.

Teeven and MPs described the figures as ‘unacceptable’. He told parliament that he would report back on the situation at the end of the year.