Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 14
14
Accepted
In 2006, our Committee found that there was insufficient evidence available to determine whether tagging...
Recommendation
In 2006, our Committee found that there was insufficient evidence available to determine whether tagging helped to reduce re-offending or promote rehabilitation. We recommended that the Home Office—which previously managed tagging services— should carry out research to establish the role that electronic monitoring could play in minimising reoffending and make the results available to courts and prisons.23 In its response to our report, the Home Office committed to conduct analysis of the reconviction rates of offenders on tagging curfew orders and make its analysis available in 2007.24 In its 2022 report, the NAO found that the evidence base for tagging still remained weak 16 years later. HMPPS did not assess the impact of tagging on demand for prison places or reoffending in its GPS location monitoring pilots due to limited resources. More broadly, HMPPS did not monitor its planned benefits in its transformation programme, which included involving diverting offenders from custody and modifying offenders’ behaviour.25
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee’s recommendation and will use EM data to inform reporting. They will also implement a benefits management strategy and realisation plan by April 2023 and develop a formal evaluation strategy for EM.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: August 2023 4.2 EM data analysts now receive monthly data from EM service providers. This informs a comprehensive internal reporting suite and supports quarterly external publications. A data improvement plan has been developed and a data dictionary produced to map the data structure from existing providers to the improved Future Service design. The department’s data scientists now have access to a detailed cut of provider data which has been cleansed and matched with core probation data. This enables the agency to develop more detailed analytics about the impact of EM. 4.3 By April 2023, a benefits management strategy and realisation plan will be in place to manage the identification, realisation, tracking and ownership of EM benefits. Benefit owners will be held accountable for realising assigned benefits; this will be tracked through the agency’s benefits management processes and governance. 4.4 The Ministry of Justice is developing a formal, outward-looking evaluation strategy for EM. This outlines how the department, and the agency will use evaluation to develop a strong evidence base for future decision making, built around the needs of stakeholders. To fully understand each programme’s implementation, a range of evaluation methods will be used including process, impact and economic evaluations. Each evaluation programme will be underpinned by a logic model that describes key project outcomes, outputs, activities and inputs. This will ensure evaluations are useful, credible, proportionate and robust.