Britain 'investing in 30,000 more electronic tags for criminals' amid massive overhaul

Daily Mail​

20-05-2025

Britain is investing in 30,000 more electronic tags for criminals as part of a massive overhaul in sentencing law.
The huge expansion of tagging technology will see nearly 40,000 criminals electronically monitored at once.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is understood to have secured £700 million in funding from the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to buy the devices.
This will increase the Probation Service's budget by roughly a third and enable it to quadruple the number of criminals fitted with electronic tags, The Times reports.
It comes as David Gauke, the former Conservative justice secretary, will publish a long-awaited sentencing review this month.
The report is expected to lead to the most drastic shake-up of sentencing legislation in decades and, the government is predicted to accept most of his recommendations.
A MoJ spokesman said last week: 'This Government inherited a justice system in crisis, with prisons days from collapse.
'David Gauke is conducting a sentencing review to ensure that we never run out of prison places again, and we are committed to reforming sentencing to ensure our prisons cut crime and keep the public safe.'
The Ministry of Justice is also thought to be preparing to announce a new type of tag that will measure the level of drugs in an offender's system by monitoring their blood pressure and heart rate.
Mahmood said the new devices are the 'holy grail' of tagging technology because of the large proportion of criminals whose offending is driven by drugs.
It comes as David Gauke (pictured), the former Conservative justice secretary, will publish a long-awaited sentencing review this month
Low-risk offenders could also be monitored using GPS trackers and biometric check-in technology on smartphones to make sure tags are saved for more serious criminals.
Google and Palantir Technologies, another technology company, have been commissioned by the government to come up with an accurate way to predict an offender's risk level using AI software.
The software would use both location-tracking information and other data to identify changes in risk levels.
The Probation Service has the ability to put tags on roughly 9,000 criminals at any one time.
This will rise to almost 40,000 under plans that will be announced by Mahmood on Thursday.
Labour's sentencing review is also expected to suggest the biggest-ever reductions in the time prisoners must serve, in exchange for good behaviour while they are behind bars.
In some cases that could see inmates set free after serving only a third of their initial sentence.
A prison overcrowding crisis led the Government to introduce early release for most inmates after they have served 40 per cent of their sentences, and discounts are now likely to be extended even further for some criminals.
A key measure expected to be set out in next week's report will see convicted offenders handed maximum and minimum sentences by the courts.
Under the minimum sentences, inmates will serve one third if they complete work, training or education in jail, and show good behaviour.
Those who fail to comply will have to serve their maximum terms – which are likely to be beyond the 40 per cent automatic release date currently in force, the Telegraph reported.
Labour's existing early release scheme excludes offenders jailed for sex crimes, terrorism and serious violent crimes carrying more than four years' imprisonment.
The new proposals – drawn up for Ms Mahmood by former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke – are likely to follow a similar pattern.
It could mean most criminals will benefit from extended sentence discounts, including some violent offenders, fraudsters, drug dealers, burglars and thieves.
Jails in England and Wales were holding 88,087 inmates on Monday, with headroom of 1,355 places.
Ministry of Justice forecasts suggest jails will run out of space again early next year, despite the opening of a new 1,500-bed jail HMP Millsike, near York, a month ago.
Another key reform outlined in the review is the idea of using technology to create 'digital prisons' for those under house arrest, The Times reported.
That will involve using electronic tags and other surveillance technology to build out a new three-stage model for prison release.
That will see first stage inmates transferred to a second stage of house arrest for the middle of their sentence before finally being released into the community for the third part once they have been ruled not a threat.
As well as ending shorter sentences, the sentencing review is also pushing the government to embrace intensive supervision courts which involves judges meeting offenders as frequently as every fortnight.
The scheme, already in its trial stage, is aimed at rehabilitating low level offenders who have to commit to two-year orders and seek treatment for drink, drugs or mental health issues.
Those on the scheme can be jailed for 28 days for major violations of their license and are cut from the scheme after three strikes.
However, early results have proved positive, with data showing than more than two-thirds (70 per cent) of offenders comply with the program.
The scheme actually has its origins in Conservative policy since it was first introduced by the then-justice secretary Michael Gove in 2015.