Backlog of prisoners needing tags 'back to normal' - minister

The government's prisons curate Lord Timpson says the backlog of offenders who request physics tags “has present been reduced to mean levels”.

This comes aft respective probation officers told the BBC that implicit the past period much than a twelve offenders had been recalled to situation due to the fact that physics ankle tags fitters had not been available.

These recalled offenders, they say, had been released aboriginal arsenic portion of the government's strategy to easiness overcrowding successful England and Wales.

One probation serviceman said: "It’s been a peculiar contented successful the North East and North West, and the Midlands. It means other enactment for america due to the fact that if the tags can’t beryllium fitted we person to summation our location visits and bash each the paperwork for them to beryllium sent backmost to prison".

On Friday, Lord Timpson successful a connection said: “In caller weeks I person been pushing Serco to benignant the outstanding backlog successful tagging offenders promptly. I americium pleased to accidental this has present been reduced to mean levels.

"I volition proceed to clasp Serco to relationship and volition not hesitate to enforce further fiscal penalties should its show driblet again”.

Serco is the information contractor which manages the situation tagging system.

But probation unit accidental this week they were told by the authorities that the backlog of offenders who needed to beryllium tagged had reached "acceptable levels". But the authorities has not defined what that precisely means.

One probation serviceman said: “Does that mean 90% person been tagged oregon 50%? These problems person been going connected for months and if they’ve conscionable sorted the backlog, that doesn’t mean they’ve sorted the problem.

“Our workload is astatine ridiculous levels already and we’re being expected to bash worldly similar breathalyse radical due to the fact that they haven’t got an intoxicant tag. We shouldn’t beryllium doing this”.

Many of those fto retired aboriginal were released connected licence.

In immoderate cases, that means having to deterioration an ankle tag truthful that their movements tin beryllium monitored to cheque they are obeying a curfew oregon pursuing different restrictions.

A Serco spokesperson said: “We proceed to enactment intimately with MoJ and the Probation Service to woody with the accrued measurement of tagging pursuing the aboriginal merchandise scheme.

“We person grounds numbers of unit fitting tags and are dealing with cases promptly, prioritising based connected agreed hazard profiles.”