Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will review the effectiveness of short prison sentences and seek alternatives such as community sentences, electronic tagging and home curfew.
Answered by Dominic Raab
Sentencing is a matter for our independent judiciary, who decide whether a custodial sentence is justified and for how long, based on the law, sentencing guidelines and the circumstances of the case.
In order to improve the rehabilitation of those serving short custodial sentences, the Offender Rehabilitation Act (2014) introduced supervision on release for offenders serving under 12 months and we will continue to monitor the effect of these changes.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will place the documents relating to the contract signed in 2017 between the Government and G4S for the electronic tagging of offenders in the Library.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
A redacted version of the new contract between the Ministry of Justice and G4S for electronic monitoring hardware equipment will be published on Contracts Finder in line with current transparency regulations. We are currently planning to sign the contract by the end of October 2017. I will write to the Honourable gentleman when the contract has been published.
The field monitoring services including fitting and removal of tags and the monitoring provision is provided by Capita Business Services Limited.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the outsourcing of electronic tagging of ex-offenders.
Answered by David Lidington
Electronic Monitoring is an important tool to improve supervision in the community and support offenders to change their lives; the restrictions and structure imposed can help to break habits and limit opportunities to offend, which can reinforce positive behaviour when used alongside other interventions or requirements. The Electronic Monitoring service has always been delivered using a contracted infrastructure, so it is not possible to make any assessment against another delivery model.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the savings to the public purse of out-sourcing electronic tagging for ex-offenders.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Electronic Monitoring is an important tool to improve supervision in the community and support offenders to change their lives. The Electronic Monitoring service has always been delivered using a contracted infrastructure. Estimating the cost of a public sector delivery model could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to extend the mandation of electronic tagging to include priority and persistent offenders as part of integrated offender management programmes.
Answered by Lord Faulks
A comprehensive review of the Electronic Monitoring programme to introduce GPS technology is underway.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to extend the mandation of electronic tagging to include individuals under a Domestic Violence Protection Order.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Government is wholly committed to protecting women and girls from violence and supporting victims and survivors. We are currently developing a refreshed strategy on violence against women and girls which will include intervening earlier in the abuse cycle to deter and rehabilitate perpetrators, as well as continuing to improve the protection for victims and bring offenders to justice.
We are supportive of any tools that can assist the police to manage offenders and protect victims. The potential application of new technologies and electronic monitoring to protect victims of domestic abuse is something that we are exploring as part of our refreshed strategy and we are committed to working with police forces to test new technology. We have no immediate plans to mandate the use of electronic tagging in relation to Domestic Violence Protection Orders.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of GPS tagging on the efficacy of monitoring of offenders released on probation.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
Electronic location monitoring may discourage offenders from committing further offences, because of their perception that location data could link them to the offence. We believe there could be benefits in terms of reduced re-offending, public protection, and crime detection and investigation by the police.
Asked by: Ian Davidson (Labour (Co-op) - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what measures her Department has put in place to track foreign national offenders upon release back into the community since May 2010.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Tough enforcement is the cornerstone of this Government’s immigration policy.
Those who break our laws should be removed from the country at the earliest
opportunity, and we will seek to remove any foreign national who
receives a custodial sentence for a criminal offence.
We removed almost 5,100 foreign national offenders in 2013/14 and over 23,000
since 2010. We are removing more offenders straight from prison, which saved
the taxpayer £27.5million in the last financial year. This is all despite a 28%
increase in appeals.
We are dealing with offenders who do not want to go home, and in some cases
whose home country does not want to take them back. This presents challenges
which we are determined to overcome. Chief among the challenges are the legal
barriers we face.
That is why this Government is the first to have a strategy for dealing with
foreign national offenders, including overcoming obstacles to their removal. We have
also introduced new powers in the Immigration Act (2014) which have cut the number
of grounds on which criminals can appeal deportation. More than 500 foreign offenders
have already been removed under the new ‘deport now, appeal later’ provisions.
The majority of foreign national offenders in the community were released by an
Immigration Judge, despite our strong opposition. Most offenders are subject to
reporting conditions and, where possible, electronic tagging. If a foreign
national offender fails to comply with these conditions by absconding, our
dedicated national absconder tracing team works with the police, other
government agencies and commercial companies to track down, arrest
and return absconders to custody. The Home Office is using intelligence
and working more closely with partners to maximise the impact of enforcement
activity.
Asked by: Sadiq Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much the new contract for electronic monitoring is costing his Department in each year of the contract.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The annual cost of the Ministry of Justice’s new electronic monitoring contracts is forecast as follows:
2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 |
£114.5M | £81.8M | £61.2M | £59.4M | £56.6M | £56.6M |
The figure for 2015/16 incorporates the cost of mobilising the contracts. We expect the new contracts to deliver average annual savings of approximately £20m relative to the previous contracts with G4S and Serco.
These new contracts will allow us to introduce some of the most advanced electronic monitoring technology in the world. Satellite tagging will allow us to keep a much closer watch on the most high-risk and persistent offenders who cause so much harm in our communities, creating a safer society with fewer victims.
Asked by: Kelvin Hopkins (Independent - Luton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 31 March 2014, to the hon. Member for Barnsley Central, Official Report, column 528W, on electronic tagging, whether the anticipated roll-out of satellite tagging by the end of the year will be on a full or pilot basis.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
I have previously announced that we will begin using the new tags with satellite technology by the end of the year with offenders subject to release on temporary licence from prison. This will be initially on a limited basis as the new tags become available, and will allow us to undertake assurance testing prior to wider rollout.