Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Deferred
Paragraph: 126
Ensure magistrates are informed about electronic monitoring to improve awareness and confidence.
Recommendation
We welcome the Government’s commitment to the use of electronic monitoring. Such technology offers opportunities to prevent the use of custodial remand through monitoring in the community and can also monitor compliance with bail conditions. We recommend that the Ministry of Justice ensure magistrates are provided with the information on the forms of electronic monitoring that are available and what they can be used for to improve awareness and confidence in the use of tagging as an alternative to custodial remand.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government accepted the recommendation but then focused on the expansion of Community Accommodation Service Tier-2 (CAS-2) bed spaces and monthly reviews of demand, only briefly linking it to electronic monitoring outreach work without detailing how magistrates will be informed about EM.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
126
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
We accept this recommendation. HMPPS’ electronic monitoring (EM) Business Change and Stakeholder Engagement team regularly engages with judges, magistrates and other criminal justice stakeholders to raise awareness of the full range of EM capabilities and to increase understanding of how they can be used effectively. During April 2022 to December 2022, this has included engagement with the judiciary in numerous courts across England and Wales, undertaking what is described as ‘court outreach’. This initially focused on 44 courts where the data suggested a lower-than- average take-up of EM. A series of awareness-raising briefings were delivered to over 1,200 people in total, including the judiciary within those courts, as well as HMCTS staff, e.g., legal advisers, and probation staff based in courts. We followed this up with further briefings to judiciary and staff within other courts, reaching a further 800 people. Feedback from magistrates and other attendees was very positive and preliminary data indicates a small increase in the use of EM in these courts, compared to those that were not part of the court outreach. In order to inform the judiciary on the availability and usefulness of EM as a bail condition, we have worked with the Senior Presiding Judge’s Office to produce a 15 minute ‘bitesize’ video and will continue to expand engagement by delivering further court outreach. We will continue to work with the Senior Presiding Judge to explore ways in which the judiciary can be updated, in both Crown and Magistrates’ Courts, with accurate information about the availability and effectiveness of EM as a means of monitoring bail conditions as an alternative to remand.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗