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.

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.