Expansion of electronic tagging in England and Wales will put public at risk, watchdog warns

About 28,700 people are being electronically monitored in the UK. Photograph: Guy Corbishley/Alamy View image in fullscreen About 28,700 people are being electronically monitored in the UK. Photograph: Guy Corbishley/Alamy Expansion of electronic tagging in England and Wales will put public at risk, watchdog warns National Audit Office says system needs to be upgraded before it is extended to ease strain on overcrowded prisons The rapid expansion of electronic tagging to reduce pressure on prisons will put public safety at risk without robust improvements to a system already under significant strain, the UK’s public spending watchdog has warned. The number of people in England and Wales being electronically monitored has doubled to 28,700 over five years, and is estimated to rise to 22,000 tagged each year from 2027 under government plans to combat the prison capacity crisis by managing more offenders in the community. But thousands of individuals may not be actively monitored, the National Audit Office said in a report that raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the system. It calls on the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) to put robust contingency plans in place. As of March 2026, HMPPS was reviewing about 8,900 cases – 24% of those required to be tagged – to determine the number of unmonitored cases, the report said. The MoJ suggested the figure was lower, saying its statistics show unmonitored cases to be around 5,450. Lack of safeguards over prisoners’ early release puts abuse victims at risk, Lammy warned Read more Among its concerns, the report highlighted poor early performance from one external contractor, Serco . Between August 2024 and July 2025, individuals were not tagged on time and officials were not notified of potential breaches in a timely manner, though performance was said to have since improved. During this period, the backlog of visits to fit, check or remove tags increased significantly to a peak of 7,000 in October 2024, before returning to fewer than 400 in November 2024, the report said. There were delays in fitting individuals with tags. In February 2026, although Serco met its 95% timeliness target for visits, it was only successful in fitting tags on 62% of the people it visited within its two attempts. View image in fullscreen The report highlighted poor early performance from one external contractor, Serco, with delays in fitting individuals’ tags. Photograph: Andrew Aitchison/Corbis/Getty Images An estimated shortfall of about 2,200 probation staff as of March 2026 also added to concerns about whether the system could scale up safely, the report said. It concluded that further expansion to the electronic monitoring system would not be efficient or effective unless the MoJ and HMPPS worked with partners to address weaknesses in governance, data quality and system-wide inefficiencies to support a more reliable and responsive service. The government has allocated up