Jones Has Warned That the Electronic Tagging System, Relied Upon to Monitor Thousands of Early-released Prisoners, Is Failing to Alert

Jones described the system as "clunky" and overly dependent on police and probation officers manually checking individual cases. He urged an upgrade to automatically send alerts when ex-inmates breach exclusion zones. The warning follows the government's plan to release up to 5,000 prisoners from 1 October to ease overcrowding, with 86,500 currently incarcerated and 2,400 spare places.

Andy Burnham paused the scheme last month and on Tuesday excluded rapists, serious child sexual abusers, and grooming offenders, cutting releases by 1,000. Killers and domestic abusers remain eligible, the Ministry of Justice confirmed. Jones noted that electronically monitored individuals have doubled to 28,700 in five years, with new tags expected to rise to 22,000 annually from 2027, requiring a significant staff increase. An early inspection review across six regions found probation officers wrongly assuming they'd be notified of exclusion zone breaches, data not actively monitored, and officers "overwhelmed and disengaged" by correspondence volume.

Jones stressed that tagging only provides location data, requiring sufficient officers to interpret it. The National Audit Office last month warned that rapid tagging expansion risks public safety without robust improvements. Jones also called for adequate staffing in approved premises, which monitor 2,000 serious offenders post-release. Justice Secretary Alex Norris apologized to affected families, saying they were carrying the can from previous failures.