Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of his Department's contract with Serco for electronic monitoring on the (a) physical and (b) mental wellbeing of people who will be monitored; and what estimate he has made of the number of people monitored under that contract.

The priority when it comes to electronic monitoring is public protection, hence why they can be accompanied by tough curfews and exclusion zones. However, Serco’s health and safety policy ensures that the physical and mental wellbeing of those subject to electronic monitoring is also regarded. Serco will conduct wellbeing visits, direct those with an electronic monitoring requirement to organisations offering advice and support where necessary and pay due regard to an individual’s health considerations during the installation of equipment and subsequent monitoring of requirements. Serco’s approach was assessed in their tender response and their performance of this will be assessed and reviewed as part of overall contract management.

We have made sufficient funds available to increase the number of defendants and offenders subject to electronic monitoring at any one time to 25,000 by March 2025. This includes doubling the number of GPS tags available to courts for community orders and suspended sentences to support robust community sentences and supervision.