Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department is taking steps to introduce (a) paired proximity GPS, (b) alcohol abstinence monitoring equipment and (c) other new tagging technology to protect victims of domestic violence through new electronic monitoring contracts.

The new electronic monitoring system under development will introduce GPS enabled location monitoring and is being designed on a flexible and scalable platform to allow for further new monitoring technologies to be introduced. The introduction of new monitoring technologies after the new system is in service in 2019 will depend on the evaluation of the benefits any new technology would provide. The learning from two alcohol monitoring schemes currently being piloted in the country will help inform any future decision to roll out alcohol monitoring technology nationally.