EXCLUSIVE: The Government will provide staff with real-time electronic monitoring data to follow offenders more closely and identify potential risks or breaching of compliance
Probation staff are set to be given real time data and powers to issue offenders random drug tests to help beat crime and keep communities safe.
The Government will provide staff with real-time electronic monitoring data to follow offenders more closely and identify potential risks or breaching of compliance.
Electronic tagging uses devices, usually worn around the ankle, monitor whether people under probation supervision comply with conditions, such as house arrest.
Under the plans, there will also be random tests for 1,000 offenders on licence each month for drugs for both the welfare of those being monitored and the public.
Currently being piloted in London, officials believe the new Electronic Monitoring Data Insights service will give frontline probation teams faster access to information from offenders’ tags.
The real-time monitoring will go live across London, the West Midlands and the East of England in mid-August.
Once the pilots finish, the technology will be available to all probation staff nationwide by the end of 2026, strengthening offender supervision and helping to keep communities safe across the country.
A Government source said: “The new Justice Secretary wants to look at ramping up the use of technology to protect the public and ensure probation officers are always one step ahead of offenders.”
New PM Andy Burnham has said “keeping the public safe” will be his top priority, and last week announced he would pause the early prisoner release scheme in a dramatic intervention.
The controversial programme was set up in response to the prison overcrowding crisis left behind by the Tories – but criticised by the widow of PC Andrew Harper in recent days.
Under the new Sentencing Act – set to come into force in September – some 6,000 criminals were due to be released under the early prison release scheme.
Earlier this year Napo, the union representing probation staff, passed a no-confidence motion in HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) leadership.
They warned excessive workloads, understaffing, and burnout posed a “direct risk to the public” because staff were unable to manage clients’ risk effectively.
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