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Written Question
Electronic Tagging: Coronavirus
Friday 1st May 2020

Asked by: Andrew Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Secretary of State for Justice, what procedures are in place for tagging offenders by police services in England and Wales during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

The MOJ has no procedures in place for offenders to be tagged by police services during the covid-19 outbreak. The tagging of offenders released from custody as a requirement of a licence or subject to court imposed electronic monitoring is carried out by the Electronic Monitoring Service (EMS) not by police services during the covid-19 outbreak or otherwise. EMS is continuing to fulfil all the tagging requirements that it is responsible for and its staff have been designated key workers as their work is essential to the running of the justice system.

Those being released under the End of Custody Temporary Release scheme, which has been established for low-risk offenders within two months of release, as part of the national plan to protect the NHS and save lives, are being fitted with a GPS tag on release and are subject to conditions requiring them to adhere to a curfew and the Government’s Covid-19 measures.


Written Question
Counter-terrorism
Monday 17th February 2020

Asked by: Andrew Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans his Department has to restructure the counter-terrorism programme.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Following the two recent attacks at Fishmongers’ Hall and HMP Whitemoor, the Government announced a package of funding and legislative changes, including major investment in counter terrorism resources in prisons and probation, which is overseen by the Joint Extremism Unit (JEXU) a joint Home Office and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation (HMPPS) unit.

The package of measures include:

  • Tougher sentences for the most serious terrorist offenders, which will mean dangerous terrorist offenders who receive extended determinate sentences serve their entire sentence

  • Doubling the number of Counter-Terrorism specialist probation staff. These specially trained staff will deliver a set of new, intensive national standards for managing terrorists on licence;

  • These new standards will mean terrorists are subjected to closer monitoring and reporting requirements.

  • An increase in the resources dedicated to training front-line prison and probation staff and;

  • The introduction of polygraph testing.

  • An independent review of our Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA).

Following the attack on 2 February in Streatham, the government announced emergency legislation to ensure an end to terrorist offenders getting released automatically, having served half of their sentence with no check or review.


Written Question
Prosecutions: Scotland
Thursday 5th September 2019

Asked by: Andrew Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions under the Malicious Communications Act 1988 were made in Scotland in the last five years.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Malicious Communications Act 1988 only extends to England and Wales. Data collected by the Ministry of Justice is only available, therefore, for prosecutions that occur in England and Wales.