More than 5,000 offenders in England and Wales did not receive electronic tags — The Guardian

More than 5,000 offenders in England and Wales did not receive electronic monitoring tags because probation service staff failed to fit the devices. This accounts for 15% of all people subject to an electronic monitoring order, The Guardian reports, citing a report by the Institute for Government.

Problems with electronic monitoring

The report states that from January to April, tags were not fitted to more than 5,000 people who were supposed to be monitored. Nearly another 1,600 people wore devices that did not transmit a signal to the monitoring system for two weeks because of technical faults or because they had not been charged.

The study’s authors concluded that the electronic monitoring system is not functioning properly and is failing to meet demand. No probation service division inspected in 2024 or 2025 received a rating higher than “requires improvement,” while two-thirds of divisions were rated “inadequate.”

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Shortage of probation staff

The Institute for Government said that due to staff shortages, the probation service is forced to limit supervision of offenders. The report says that after the full implementation of the Sentencing Act 2026, most convicted offenders will spend the final third of their sentences on licence without active supervision.

Cassia Rowland, deputy director of the Institute for Government and the report’s author, said probation staff feel demoralised and are concerned about their own safety and risks to the public. According to her, because of waiting lists, some prisoners complete their sentences before they can begin programmes supporting people with addictions.

The report recommended that the government gradually increase the number of probation staff and restore home detention curfew to help cope with prison numbers. The government, for its part, said it was making record investments in the probation service, community sentences, the expansion of electronic monitoring and the recruitment of thousands of new staff. At the same time, the report’s authors warned that expanding the use of tags could further increase the workload of already overstretched staff.