Background to the report

Electronic monitoring (EM), or ‘tagging’, uses technology to remotely monitor a person’s location and compliance with community orders, court and immigration bail conditions and conditions post release from prison. The electronic monitoring service refers to the supplier-delivered tagging and monitoring contracts, but effective electronic monitoring depends on the wider electronic monitoring system, which involves courts, prisons, probation and the police.

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In October 2023, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) awarded new contracts to: Serco, to fit tags and monitor tagged individuals; and Allied Universal Electronic Monitoring (Allied), to supply the tags and monitoring system. This followed the reprocurement of the electronic monitoring service as part of its 2021–2026 electronic monitoring expansion programme. The new service went live in May 2024, with a transition period as the new suppliers took over and moved services onto new systems and devices. But by mid-2025, MoJ and HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) acknowledged there had been significant performance issues, including long delays in fitting tags.

In September 2025, MoJ announced plans to significantly expand electronic monitoring. This expansion would be part of the Sentencing Act 2026, which aims to ease prison pressures by managing more offenders in the community. It estimated that up to 22,000 additional individuals would be tagged each year from 2027, placing further strain on a system that had already been performing poorly. To boost the system’s ability to cope with increased demand, HMPPS has set out plans to ‘Stabilise, Scale and Transform EM’ (STEM).

Scope of the report

This report examines whether MoJ and HMPPS have:

  • clearly defined expectations for electronic monitoring, including how to measure success
  • understood whether the system is operating in line with expectations and addressed early underperformance
  • made plans to ensure electronic monitoring is resilient to rising demand

Video summary

Kemi Duroshola, Senior Audit Manager, summarises our findings.

Conclusions

Electronic monitoring is a central component of the government’s plans to manage pressures on prisons. Since 2021, HMPPS has successfully and rapidly expanded electronic monitoring to new groups. However, overall electronic monitoring is not working as intended, creating public protection risks.

HMPPS has worked with Serco to reduce backlogs in fitting tags, but supplier performance improvements alone are not sufficient to provide confidence that the system is resilient or protects the public. Significant inefficiencies persist across the system, wasting staff time and taxpayers’ money, and limiting performance improvements.

Of particular concern is the likely significant number of unmonitored individuals. Additionally, police and probation officers often lack relevant information or capacity to respond to breaches quickly, and governance is fragmented. Overall, we conclude that MoJ and HMPPS have therefore not yet achieved some key aspects of their 2022 vision of a data-driven, robust and responsive service.

Demand for electronic monitoring is expected to rise substantially from September 2026. HMPPS has set out its plans to stabilise, scale and transform the service. However, stakeholders do not yet have a joined-up understanding of system-wide capacity or risks.

Expanding a system that is not yet working as intended heightens risks to future performance and, ultimately, to public protection. We judge that further expansion of the electronic monitoring system will not be effective or efficient unless MoJ and HMPPS work with stakeholders to address weaknesses in governance, data quality and system-wide inefficiencies to support a more reliable and responsive service.

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Press release

View press release (10 Jul 2026)

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