Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure the effectiveness of the proposed expansion of electronic monitoring of offenders in helping to (a) reduce reoffending and (b) support rehabilitation.

In support of the Sentencing Bill, the Ministry of Justice will significantly expand the use of electronic monitoring as a vital tool for probation to ensure offenders are managed safely in the community.

This expansion builds on the Department’s long-standing commitment to building the evidence base for electronic monitoring. Our evaluations, alongside external research commissioned by the Department, have provided clear evidence that targeted electronic monitoring conditions can reduce reoffending and support reintegration by providing an effective alternative to custody. A recent study has found that curfew tags reduce reoffending by 20% when used as part of a community sentence. Further to this, our Acquisitive Crime pilot evaluation shows that burglars, robbers, and thieves given a constant whereabouts monitoring condition with a GPS tag were around 20% less likely to reoffend while on the tag.