The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has disclosed that 5,450 offenders failed to have mandated electronic monitoring devices fitted as of the end of March, marking a significant new scandal. This number represents just under one in seven of the 37,600 individuals who were supposed to be electronically tagged by court order or upon release from prison.
While the MoJ stated that some cases have valid reasons for the absence of tags, such as the offender being returned to custody, other instances involved less satisfactory explanations, including the offender not being home when contractors arrived for installation. The ministry has not provided a breakdown of how many offenders fall into each category.
The admission comes at a critical time for the government's sentencing reforms, which rely heavily on community punishments supported by electronic tagging. In March, Prisons Minister Lord Timpson hailed the reforms as the "biggest expansion of tagging in British history," asserting that "the most dangerous offenders will now be watched more closely than ever before."
An MoJ spokesman commented on the reasons for equipment not being assigned, citing instances where offenders were not at their address for installation, had recently returned to custody, had a medical reason, or were within two days of starting or finishing their order. "There are a range of reasons why equipment may not have been assigned," the spokesman said.
This situation echoes a previous tagging scandal in 2013, when contractors G4S and Serco were found to have billed the UK taxpayer for tagging individuals who were deceased, in prison, or had never been tagged. Those firms incorrectly billed the MoJ for millions of pounds, leading to G4S repaying over £100 million and Serco over £70 million. Further investigations by the Serious Fraud Office resulted in substantial fines for both companies.
The number of offenders subject to tagging is expected to increase from September when the government plans to implement its new early release scheme, allowing criminals to be let out of jail early. This follows an existing scheme launched in 2024 that has already seen over 60,000 offenders freed early.