Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 8
Twenty-First Report: Transforming electronic monitoring services
Published 21 Oct 2022
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Electronic Monitoring programme All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Witnesses admitted there should have been stronger governance and more scrutiny of the programme from the Ministry of Justice. In late 2019, HMPPS prepared an 6 Q 90 7 Q 17 8 Qq 21, 26; C&AG’s report, para 3 9 Q 20; C&AG’s report, para 3.4 10 Q 22; C&AG’s report, para 2.4 11 C&AG’s report, para 3.4 12 Q 78 10 Transforming electronic monitoring services ‘addendum’ to its business case for the programme, as Capita’s delays in developing Gemini would require a further extension to its interim contract. Although this approach to extending the programme complied with rules in place at the time, the NAO found that this approach required more limited support and less challenge than if the programme had been formally reconsidered through a revised business case.13 HMPPS told us that as the changes fell within the scope of the business case and the then Senior Responsible Owner’s delegated authority, the programme team asked the Ministry’s investment committee “only to note the decision”.14 It also told us that had the programme pursued a termination of Capita’s contract at that point, this would have involved more detailed governance and scrutiny. HMPPS told us that it believed that its decision to extend the programme was right, as changes it made to its systems and moving them to the cloud enabled its plans to expand tagging services over the previous 18 months.15
From: Public Accounts Committee, Twenty-First Report: Transforming electronic monitoring services (HC 34), 21 October 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 December 2022 (deadline 21 December 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with each of the Committee's six recommendations on the Ministry of Justice's electronic monitoring services, and gives target implementation dates for five of them.
- On real-time police access to GPS data, the government agrees with the recommendation, but says police have advised that live access is not a current priority; it will "consider whether and how changes to the service can be made" should the police's view change.
- On outdated technology, remediation work has moved from December 2022 to March 2023, and system improvements "by the end of January 2023" are intended to let the GPS system cope with rising volumes.
- On evidence of impact, a benefits management strategy and realisation plan will be in place "By April 2023", and a formal evaluation strategy for electronic monitoring is being developed. The target implementation date is August 2023.
- On oversight of the expansion programme, the agency commits to write to the Committee in August 2023, once new contracts have been awarded.