Thousands of criminals to be tagged as UK ramps up deportations of foreign offenders
Tens of thousands more criminals will be tagged and monitored over the next three years as part of a plan to make the streets safer, the government has announced.
It is the biggest expansion of tagging since the adoption of curfew tags in 1999, with an extra £100 million being invested into electronic monitoring – an increase of 30%.
The Government is also introducing, for the first time, a presumption that all prison leavers will be tagged on release as part of intensive supervision, with the Probation Service keeping a closer eye on offenders’ behaviour. This means, unless Probation Staff specifically decide not to, any offender leaving prison will be tagged.
A new pilot launching next month will also see offenders tagged before leaving the prison gates, rather than days later as is currently the case, ahead of a planned wider rollout to end the surveillance gap in the crucial time after release.
The Government has already announced it will introduce a new “earned progression model” that will see prisoners who break the rules spend longer than the minimum of 33 or 50 percent in prison, ending automatic release for badly behaved offenders. It was inspired by changes in Texas where crime has since fallen to levels last seen in the 1960s.
To enforce this, the Government is toughening the prison punishment regime, so prisoners face up to three months extra in jail for violence or being found with illicit items like phones. Multiple incidents will see punishments added consecutively with constantly violent prisoners potentially spending their whole sentence behind bars as a result.
Offenders released from prison will enter a period of “intensive supervision” tailored to their risk and the type of crime they committed. Probation officers will maintain discretion to tag offenders based on their risk to the public and their victim.
Those subject to Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements will remain in this “intensive supervision” stage for the duration of their sentence. Others will progress into a licence phase, with strict conditions on their behaviour remaining.
This “earned progression model” will apply to prisoners serving standard determinate sentences only. Some offenders on standard determinate sentences will spend at least one-third of their sentence behind bars. Those serving standard determinate sentences for more serious offences will serve at least half in prison. Dangerous offenders will be unaffected with those serving extended determinate sentences or life sentences continuing to spend as much time behind bars as they do now.
Ramping up deportations
The Government is also ramping up deportations of foreign criminals, freeing up vital space in our prisons and keeping the public safe – with deportations 14 percent higher since July 2024. This Bill will drive this work further with measures to see immediate deportation after sentencing for foreign criminals, rather than having their bed and board in prison covered by taxpayers as currently.
The Bill also introduces a presumption that prison sentences of a year or less will be replaced with tougher sentences in the community that better punish offenders and stop them reoffending. Currently, 62 percent of those receiving a prison sentence of under 12 months reoffended within a year, which is higher than similar offenders given sentences in the community.
Offenders who pose a significant risk of harm to an individual or who have breached a court order – including breach of a previous suspended sentence order – will be exempt from this change, meaning judges always have the power to send dangerous offenders or prolific law breakers to prison.
For those offenders who will be punished outside of prison, the Government is toughening up community sentences with a series of new measures:
- Punishments that restrict offenders’ freedom in the community. Judges will be handed new powers to bar criminals from pubs, concerts and sports matches, curtailing offenders’ freedoms as punishment.
- Tough unpaid work orders that force offenders to give back to society. Develop new ways in which offenders can undertake tough, unpaid work. This includes working with local authorities to determine how offenders could give back to their communities, whether by removing graffiti or cleaning up rubbish. Publishing the names and photos of those subject to an unpaid work requirement will demonstrate to the public that justice is being delivered and increase the visibility and transparency of community payback.
- Financial penalties that force offenders to pay back for their crimes. Work to deliver new “income reduction orders” which will see judges able to order offenders to forfeit some of their income as a form of punishment during their sentence.
The Government will follow the most recent evidence on how to use punishment to reduce reoffending and cut crime. This includes expanding the use of “intensive supervision courts”, which target the root causes of offending amongst prolific offenders. Despite significant addiction issues at the start of the sentence, offenders tested negative for drugs over two-thirds of the time.
Across the world, particularly in Texas and across America, this approach has driven down reoffending rates. Early signs from four pilot sites in England are positive, and the Government has announced it will expand to more sites.
The Sentencing Bill also introduces measures to better support victims of crime, including:
- New “restriction zones” – welcomed last month by victims’ campaigners Diana Parkes CBE and Hetti Barkworth-Nanton CBE, co-founders of The Joanna Simpson Foundation, and Doreen Soulsby – which will restrict offenders to a certain area, allowing victims to travel without fear of seeing them.
- A judicial finding of domestic abuse in sentencing which will allow criminal justice agencies to identify domestic abusers, ensure they are better monitored, and the right measures are in place to protect victims.
