Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 21
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)
HMPPS launched its Home Office Immigration Enforcement project, on behalf of the Home Office, in August 2021. This project extended the use of tagging using GPS tags to Foreign National Offenders who are subject to deportation proceedings. HMPPS rolled out standard fitted tags on schedule, but both it and G4S faced challenges in developing non-fitted devices: removable watches which capture facial recognition scans. Eleven months after HMPPS decided to pursue G4S’s solution, the Ministry of Justice’s Security Function advised that the device should no longer be pursued as the operating system was not compliant with cyber security standards.40 HMPPS told us that the Home Office’s original requirement for facial recognition technology significantly narrowed the available market and that the only potentially viable solution was an option available from G4S. HMPPS explained that once it learnt that the operating system was out of date, it, the Home Office and G4S agreed that the device could not be updated due to high costs. It told us that the Home Office has now opted to pursue devices which capture fingerprints instead, which has opened up more options in the market. HMPPS expected the new device to be available from September 2022.41
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- On outdated technology, remediation work has moved from December 2022 to March 2023, and system improvements "by the end of January 2023" are intended to let the GPS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.