UK to ban criminals from drinking during the World Cup
Key Points
- Around 7,300 offenders in England and Wales will be banned from drinking during the World Cup.
- The ban is enforced by ankle tags that detect alcohol in an offender's sweat 24 hours a day.
- Offenders who drink can be returned to court or sent to prison.
Around 7,300 offenders in England and Wales will be banned from drinking alcohol during the World Cup, the Ministry of Justice has said.
The offenders, who have either been released from prison or are serving a community sentence, will be fitted with alcohol-monitoring tags at some point during the tournament.
Around 5,000 were already wearing a tag when the tournament started, and a further 2,300 are expected to receive new orders.
The tags monitor an offender around the clock and detect whether they have been drinking by analysing their sweat.
If alcohol is detected, an alert is sent to the offender’s probation officer, who can take action, including ordering a return to court or to prison.
The Ministry of Justice said the tags can distinguish between offenders who are in a setting where alcohol is present, such as a pub or fan zone, and those who are actively drinking.
The figure of 7,300 is based on the average daily rate of new Alcohol Monitoring orders, extrapolated across the duration of the tournament.
The tags are used to enforce alcohol bans handed down by judges or magistrates as part of a community sentence, and can also be applied as a licence condition for offenders released from prison.
The Ministry of Justice said around 20% of offenders supervised by the Probation Service in the community have an identified alcohol need.
According to the Ministry of Justice, offenders banned from drinking by the courts have remained sober for 97% of the days they have been tagged since the technology was introduced in 2020.
The National Audit Office estimates that alcohol-fuelled crime costs the UK economy £21 billion a year. The Crime Survey found that 39% of victims of serious offences believed alcohol was a factor in the incident.
“Major sporting events should be a time for the country to come together and enjoy the game, not for alcohol-fuelled violence and disorder to ruin the occasion,” said Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending Minister Lord Timpson.
“New tagging technology is a critical tool in our efforts to punish offenders, cut reoffending, and keep the public safe, and the evidence is increasingly proving its effectiveness.”
The Ministry of Justice said tens of thousands more offenders will be tagged over the next three years as part of an expansion of the technology. The Government is also introducing a presumption that all prison leavers will be tagged on release.
Probation funding is being increased by up to £700 million by 2028/29, including the recruitment of at least 1,300 additional probation officers over the next year.
