Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate she has made of the number of offenders not tagged as a result of the Probation Service holding an incorrect address for the offender.

To establish the number of people who were not tagged because the probation service held and provided an incorrect address to the EM provider would require a trawl through thousands of individual case records held on prison and probation systems. Such information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost and is therefore not available.

The probation service audit cases where an individual has not received a tag through a weekly data report. Where incorrect addresses are identified, through discussion with EMS they are rectified as soon as possible. Serco must make a minimum of two attempts to install a tag. If both visits result in a “no show” or if the address held by Serco is incorrect, Serco is required to send a non-compliance notification to the offender’s probation officer, who will then make a decision on what enforcement action is appropriate. This can include a return to court or custody if an offender has moved address without telling their probation officer or if they have breached their licence conditions.