Key facts
- Over 5,000 offenders in England and Wales were unmonitored in the first half of the year due to tagging failures.
- 1,600 electronic tags lost signal for over two weeks due to technical faults or low battery.
- The Institute for Government report found that 15% of electronic tagging orders were not fulfilled between January and April.
- Two-thirds of probation delivery units inspected in 2024 or 2025 were rated 'inadequate'.
- The report highlights that sentences are becoming less relevant to the actual time served by offenders.
- The report recommends increasing probation workers and reintroducing home detention.
More than 5,000 offenders in England and Wales went unmonitored in the first half of the year because probation staff failed to install electronic tags, according to a report by the Institute for Government (IfG). The report also found that 1,600 tags had no signal for more than two weeks due to faults or the device not being charged. The IfG's report highlights a crisis in the probation system, attributing the failures to a lack of staff and chaotic changes being implemented. Cassia Rowland, the report's author, stated that probation staff are demoralized and concerned about public safety risks. The report concludes that sentences imposed by courts are becoming "essentially a fiction" for many offenders, as they spend significant portions of their time on license without active monitoring or enforcement. Specifically, between January and April, 15% of all people with an electronic tagging order were not monitored. The report also noted that issues with the tagging system have led to no probation delivery unit inspected in 2024 or 2025 receiving a rating above "requires improvement," with two-thirds rated "inadequate." Rowland described a scenario where a six-year sentence might result in two years in prison, two years on probation, and two years with no monitoring or enforcement, undermining the concept of a six-year sentence. The report also pointed to prisoners being let down, with sentences ending before they can access substance misuse programs. The report urged the government to increase probation workers steadily and reintroduce home detention to manage the prison population. It also called for a transparent sentencing model that clearly distinguishes between time in prison and supervised time in the community. While praising Keir Starmer's government for efforts to stabilize the prison population, the report suggested this work could be undone by Andy Burnham's exemptions to the early release scheme. The early release of approximately 700 criminals in early October, part of emergency measures to address prison capacity, has raised concerns about the Probation Service's ability to cope, especially with the expansion of electronic tagging potentially increasing workload for already short-staffed practitioners. A government spokesperson acknowledged inheriting a justice system in crisis and stated that the government is undertaking the "biggest ever expansion of electronic monitoring" and investing in the Probation Service to improve public safety.