Security company might face 'penalties' for delays in fitting electronic tags to released prisoners
manchestereveningnews.co.ukA security company could face “penalties” for the delays in fitting some offenders with electronic tags after they have been released from prison, a Home Office minister has suggested.
Jess Phillips said the Government has had “robust” conversations with Serco, which took over the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) tagging contract in May this year.
This comes after around 1,700 prisoners were released early from their sentences last week in the first phase of the Government’s plan to tackle overcrowding. READ MORE: 'We dropped our BMW at Manchester Airport, what we came back to was disgusting' On Thursday, prisons minister Lord Timpson is due to have a meeting with the security company, which has said it is “working hard” to reduce the backlog.
Speaking to LBC News radio, Ms Phillips said she was “disappointed” to learn of the delays, adding: “It’s not the Government who has made the backlog in tags, it is a contract signed with Serco in May this year. “And I have been in meetings with regard to ensuring that … any perpetrators of domestic abuse, are put to the top of the list, to ensure that they are being fitted with those tags.” She went on to say: “The prisons minister, I believe, has had some pretty robust meetings, and is meeting with Serco today, but the contract certainly has in it the allowances for there to be penalties.” “I’m almost certain that in this case, that unless something massively improves very, very quickly, that all of those things will be considered,” she added.
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