Electronic Monitoring of Offenders

Markus Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Catherine McKinnell]

I am sorry to hear about the experience of those young people in Yeovil. We need to be careful about some of the rhetoric around the subject and to always have victims in mind when we have these conversations. Yes, there must be robust challenge to ensure that we get this right and that we push the measures we are taking to the furthest point possible to make sure we keep people safe, but we must also respect the work of our probation teams who are monitoring offenders in the community and working to keep people safe. There are a range of offences that are excluded from the progression model, so those offenders are not eligible for progression. We have increased the tagging of offenders, even where they are excluded from progression but whose crimes are of a nature that we would want them to be tagged and monitored post-release in any event. I want to provide reassurance to young people: we are working at pace and our very hardest to ensure that we keep the public safe, and we manage offenders as they reintegrate back into the community.

[Markus Campbell-Savours (Penrith and Solway) (Lab)]

One former Conservative Minister wrote a book that discussed the prison system’s failure to reform. Will the Minister confirm that she has looked at Rory Stewart’s book and his concerns that the Department lacked project management capabilities and support from the Treasury, and required a longer tenure for Prison Ministers? Would she recommend the book to the shadow Minister?

[Catherine McKinnell]

Indeed, Conservative Members have made a plethora of public commentary on such issues. As well as the book my hon. Friend mentioned, the former Prime Minister herself and her policy chief admitted that not enough prison places were built. I would be interested not only in whether Conservative Members might want to read the aforementioned book, but in whether they will apologise for the failures of the previous Government—this would be a good opportunity to do that.