Security company could face ‘penalties’ for delays in fitting electronic tags

A information institution could look “penalties” for the delays successful fitting immoderate offenders with physics tags aft they person been released from prison, a Home Office curate has suggested.

Jess Phillips said the Government has had “robust” conversations with Serco, which took implicit the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) tagging declaration successful May this year.

This comes aft astir 1,700 prisoners were released aboriginal from their sentences past week successful the archetypal signifier of the Government’s program to tackle overcrowding.

On Thursday, prisons curate Lord Timpson is owed to person a gathering with the information company, which has said it is “working hard” to trim the backlog.

Speaking to LBC News radio, Ms Phillips said she was “disappointed” to larn of the delays, adding: “It’s not the Government who has made the backlog successful tags, it is simply a declaration signed with Serco successful May this year.

“And I person been successful meetings with respect to ensuring that … immoderate perpetrators of home abuse, are enactment to the apical of the list, to guarantee that they are being fitted with those tags.”

She went connected to say: “The prisons minister, I believe, has had immoderate beauteous robust meetings, and is gathering with Serco today, but the declaration surely has successful it the allowances for determination to beryllium penalties.”

“I’m astir definite that successful this case, that unless thing massively improves very, precise quickly, that each of those things volition beryllium considered,” she added.

An MoJ spokesperson said: “We are holding Serco to relationship to code delays successful fitting immoderate offenders with tags, and volition use fiscal penalties against the institution if this is not resolved quickly.

We person prioritised tagging domestic-abuse offenders to marque definite their licence conditions, specified arsenic staying distant from their victims, are strictly followed

Ministry of Justice spokesperson

“While this contented is ongoing, we person prioritised tagging domestic-abuse offenders to marque definite their licence conditions, specified arsenic staying distant from their victims, are strictly followed.”

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced plans successful July to chopped temporarily the proportionality of sentences which inmates indispensable service down bars from 50% to 40%.

The Government said the measures were indispensable arsenic overcrowding had pushed jails to the “point of collapse”.

A Serco spokesperson said: “Since we took implicit the physics monitoring declaration successful May we person been moving hard to trim the fig of radical waiting to person a tag fitted.

“We enactment intimately with the MoJ and the probation work to acceptable tags swiftly and prioritise cases based connected hazard profiles.

“Where an idiosyncratic is not astatine location erstwhile we telephone to acceptable a tag the clip taken tin beryllium longer.

“We prioritise making different sojourn truthful that radical are tagged arsenic soon arsenic possible.”