Home Office launches review of offender tagging

Friday, 23 March 2007 12:00 AM

The Home Office has been forced to launch a review into the ways offenders are tagged and tracked after an undercover investigation found hundreds were going unmonitored.

Group Four Securicor (G4S) is contracted by the Home Office to tag offenders and monitors more than 1,000 across the east Midlands. However, a BBC Inside Out report found faulty equipment and administrative errors meant many potentially dangerous offenders were left unmonitored.

The Home Office said it was disturbed by the investigation's findings and plans to question G4S about the allegations.

"Public protection is the Government's first priority," a Home Office spokesman said. "The findings of this programme are of concern. We are reviewing the contract and will be asking G4S urgent questions to ensure these allegations are thoroughly investigated and issues arising are addressed."

An undercover reporter spent four months working for G4S, where staff were filmed allegedly fabricating records to save money and meet government targets. It emerged equipment frequently failed; meaning alleged offenders were left unmonitored, sometimes for days at a time.

A manager claimed three paedophiles were among those left unmonitored. A member of staff was also filmed mocking Victor Bates, an anti-tagging campaigner whose wife was killed by an offender who had ripped off his device.

G4S has already suspended five staff members and launched its own investigation. A spokesman for the company said: "G4S takes its responsibility to the public very seriously and we will not tolerate such practices if they are proven.

"We are very disappointed that some staff may have engaged in practices which at the very least are unprofessional and at the worst constitute gross misconduct."

The Conservatives branded the report a "shocking revelation", claiming the latest Home Office "shambles" had put the public at risk.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said: "It is bad enough that tagged offenders are being left unmonitored in such a manner; it is disgraceful that these offenders include paedophiles.

"The consequences of this failure are being felt by law abiding communities up and down the country who are paying the high and often lethal price of the Government's failure with their safety."

The Home Office also confirmed it has launched an inquiry of the policy of removing tags before bail hearings, after the film raised further safety concerns.

Since tagging was introduced in 1999, it is estimated more than 1,000 inmates on release have gone on to commit violent crimes.

Tags:
• crime
,
• domestic policy
,
• youth offending