Electronic Tagging
(asked on 9th June 2026) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an estimate of the number of offenders in the electronic monitoring cohort that were unmonitored in (a) May 2024-May 2025, and (b) May 2025-May 2026.
The number of individuals on the electronic monitoring (EM) caseload was most recently published in April 2026. The data from this publication is shown below for the post-release, court sentence and immigration cohorts combined, for the months June 2025 to March 2026. Data for the months provided is reflective of the caseload at month end:
Month ending | Court Sentence | Post-release | Immigration | Total |
Jun-25 | 3,455 | 9,423 | 4,163 | 17,041 |
Jul-25 | 3,461 | 9,434 | 4,350 | 17,245 |
Aug-25 | 3,398 | 9,057 | 4,484 | 16,939 |
Sep-25 | 3,433 | 9,283 | 4,534 | 17,250 |
Oct-25 | 3,498 | 9,579 | 4,584 | 17,661 |
Nov-25 | 3,723 | 10,032 | 4,627 | 18,382 |
Dec-25 | 3,709 | 10,313 | 4,552 | 18,574 |
Jan-26 | 3,740 | 10,236 | 4,522 | 18,498 |
Feb-26 | 3,815 | 10,436 | 4,385 | 18,636 |
Mar-26 | 3,922 | 10,601 | 4,392 | 18,915 |
The link to this latest statistics publication can be found here: Electronic Monitoring Statistics Publication, March 2026 - GOV.UK. Please note that a small number of individuals within the immigration cohort may be non-Foreign National Offenders who are given an EM requirement as part of a grant of immigration bail. Please refer to the notes and technical guidance within the publication for further information on definitions, scope and caveats.
The number of offenders in the electronic monitoring cohort since March 2026 forms a subset of electronic monitoring data which is scheduled for future publication. In accordance with the requirements of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, we may not give any early indication of the contents of these statistical reports. This also applies to the request for data on unmonitored offenders during this time period.
The Ministry of Justice is unable to provide data on the number of offenders in the electronic monitoring cohort in May 2024 to May 2025. This is due to data quality issues relating to missing data and duplication of individuals across datasets following data migration, when service delivery transferred from Capita to Serco in May 2024. This also applies to the request for data on unmonitored offenders during this time period.
Serco’s performance did not originally meet expectations, but we have driven rapid improvement. All cases have now migrated to the new system, and new digital tools are being rolled out to improve timeliness. Performance has strengthened significantly and is now meeting contractual expectations. We have robust governance, risk management and continuous-improvement arrangements in place, and probation staff will soon have direct access to EM data through a Ministry of Justice platform, supporting faster decision-making and stronger risk management.