Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Government report entitled Process evaluation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) Electronic Monitoring Pilot: Qualitative findings, published 16 February 2019 whether the research in that report covers both male and female offenders.

The Process evaluation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) Electronic Monitoring Pilot: Qualitative findings included both male and female offenders and defendants. A forthcoming quantitative process evaluation of the GPS Pilot will contain analysis of Management Information gathered over the course of the pilot, including by gender. During the pilot, there were 586 tagging instances involving 20 female wearers and 566 male wearers.

Location monitoring can robustly monitor male and female offenders and defendants in the community, and provide an effective alternative to custody. If used as an alternative to custody the tags can be particularly effective in mitigating the disruptive impact of imprisonment on women with children. This is emphasised in our guidance to stakeholders.