New tagging scandal: Thousands of criminals ordered to be electronically tagged have not had devices fitted

By DAVID BARRETT, HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR Published: 18:05, 9 July 2026 | Updated: 18:18, 9 July 2026 Thousands of criminals who were supposed to be electronically tagged are not having the devices fitted in a major new scandal. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has admitted for the first time that 5,450 offenders were not wearing the electronic monitoring devices at the end of March, despite having been ordered to do so by a court or after leaving jail. They amount to just under one in seven of the 37,600 offenders who should have been fitted with tags at the time. In some – but not all – cases there are valid reasons why a tag was not fitted, such as the offender had been sent back to jail. But in others there are less satisfactory reasons such as the offender was not at home when contractors arrived to attach the monitoring device. The MoJ has not disclosed how many criminals fall into each group. The admission will be highly damaging to Labour’s controversial measures which are set to slash the number of criminals sent to jail. Ministers have placed a huge emphasis on what they claim will be ‘tough’ community punishments backed up by tagging. In March prisons minister Lord Timpson claimed Labour’s sentencing reforms included the ‘biggest expansion of tagging in British history’ which meant that ‘the most dangerous offenders will now be watched more closely than ever before’. However, the new data reveals that in a large number of cases the tags are not even fitted. An MoJ spokesman said: ‘There are a range of reasons why equipment may not have been assigned. ‘For example, because the offender was not at their address for installation; they have recently been returned to custody; they have a medical reason; or are within two days of starting or finishing their order.’ It comes after a previous tagging scandal in 2013, when it emerged that then contractors G4S and Serco had been charging the UK taxpayer for electronically tagging individuals who were dead, in prison, or had never been tagged at all. The firms incorrectly billed the MoJ for millions of pounds. G4S repaid the department more than £100million and Serco repaid more than £70million. In addition, investigations by the Serious Fraud Office resulted in Serco being fined £19.2million plus £3.7m costs and G4S being fined £38.5million plus £5.9million costs. The number of tagged offenders is set to rise from September when Labour begins letting criminals out of jail early under its new early release scheme. More than 60,000 offenders have already been freed early under an existing scheme launched by Labour in 2024.