To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many cases of tagged offenders (a) disarming their tags and (b) breaking curfews while tagged have been reported to police in each of the last three years; and how many resulted in prosecution. (150339)

The electronic monitoring contractors are only required to report to the police breaches of curfew for those subject to court bail conditions under the Bail Act 1976. According to data provided by the contactors the number of breaches reported to the police in such cases, in the previous two financial years, is as follows:

The large increase in the number of reported breaches in 2006-07 reflects the increase in the number of people made subject to bail conditions with a curfew requirement compared to the previous year.

The figures include multiple breaches/tag tampers committed by tagged persons on bail and reported to the police. Data for the year 2004-05 are not available as they relate to the previous contract, and could be provided only through a manual trawl of records at disproportionate cost.

The system is designed to ensure that any attempt to remove a tag within the curfew address automatically registers as a tamper at the electronic monitoring service provider’s control centre.

Data on the number of cases resulting in prosecution are not available centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost, through collating information from each police force.