Labour’s handling of criminal justice has come under renewed scrutiny after it emerged that the Metropolitan Police is scaling back enforcement of certain electronic tagging breaches, just weeks after Justice Secretary Alex Norris promised the toughest supervision regime in British history.
The decision has prompted criticism from Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy, who accused the Government of misleading the public over the safeguards intended to protect communities as thousands of prisoners are released early.
In a strongly worded statement, Mr Timothy said: “Alex Norris – Labour’s anonymous Justice Secretary – lied to you.”
He added: “He promised every criminal released early would be tagged. He said it would be the toughest regime ever. Now the police are so overwhelmed they’re scaling back enforcement of tag breaches.”
The criticism follows reports that Scotland Yard has introduced a pilot scheme under which officers will no longer routinely pursue certain lower-level electronic tagging breaches, unless there are particular risks to public safety or safeguarding concerns.
According to Sky News, the scheme, which is expected to run until spring 2027, means that curfew violations or failures involving electronic tag batteries lasting less than an hour will not automatically trigger police enforcement action.
Officers will continue to review breach notifications, with priority given to higher-risk cases, including those involving domestic abusers, persistent offenders and individuals considered a danger to the public.
The pilot is expected to reduce breaches requiring police action by more than 15 per cent, freeing officers to concentrate on more serious threats.
However, an important distinction is that the Government says the pilot applies to people electronically monitored while on court bail, rather than directly changing the licence conditions imposed on prisoners released early. Those prisoners are managed by the Probation Service, which refers breaches to police where necessary.
Nevertheless, the development has intensified questions about whether police, prisons and probation services have sufficient resources to cope with the additional demands created by the Government’s sentencing reforms.
More than 100 tagging breaches a day in London
The scale of the challenge was highlighted earlier this month by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, who revealed that officers in London were dealing with more than 100 electronic tagging breaches every day, with numbers continuing to rise.
Speaking to LBC on 8 October, Sir Mark said the force was also arresting two or three offenders released early from prison each week who were being recalled or had committed further offences.
He raised particular concerns about what happened after arrests, revealing that more than 95 per cent of those arrested for tagging breaches were being released on bail under the same conditions.
The Commissioner warned that this meant offenders could face little immediate consequence for repeatedly breaching restrictions.
The figures have raised questions about the effectiveness of electronic monitoring when breaches do not consistently result in meaningful enforcement action.
Labour promised the toughest monitoring system in history
The controversy comes less than a month after the Government introduced new prisoner release arrangements under the Sentencing Act 2026.
The changes, which took effect on 1 October, allow some prisoners to be released after serving just one third of their sentence, while others who would previously have served two thirds can now be released halfway through.
Certain serious offences, including rape, specified serious child sexual offences and manslaughter, are excluded from the new earlier release provisions.
Ministers have argued that the reforms are essential to prevent overcrowded prisons from running out of space, but critics have questioned whether the necessary monitoring and enforcement arrangements were ready before prisoners began leaving jail.
In an official Ministry of Justice announcement on 1 October, Mr Norris declared that offenders leaving prison would face unprecedented levels of supervision.
The Government promised an expansion of electronic tagging, new exclusion and restriction zones, tighter curfews and additional powers designed to protect victims.
However, the official policy established a presumption that offenders would be electronically tagged, rather than an absolute guarantee that every prisoner would have a tag fitted before release.
Justice Secretary unable to confirm how many prisoners had been tagged
Concerns about the practical implementation of the policy emerged almost immediately.
On 4 October, just three days after the first prisoners were released under the new arrangements, Mr Norris was unable to tell the BBC how many of approximately 700 offenders freed that week had been fitted with electronic monitoring devices.
He said it was too soon to provide the figure, despite the Government’s assurances that tagging would form a central part of its public protection measures.
The issue was subsequently raised in Parliament on 13 October, when Mr Timothy demanded answers about how many prisoners had been released with and without tags, and how many tagging breaches had occurred.
Justice Minister Jake Richards defended the Government’s record, telling MPs that data on prisoner releases would be published in the usual way, with the next figures expected in January 2027.
During the same debate, Labour MP Catherine Atkinson, chairwoman of the Justice Committee, highlighted research suggesting that more than 5,000 people who should have been electronically monitored had not been tagged between January and April 2026, equivalent to around 15 per cent of those with electronic tagging orders.
Those figures predate the latest release scheme but highlight existing problems with the electronic monitoring system.
Metropolitan Police defend decision
The Metropolitan Police has defended its decision to prioritise serious breaches, arguing that sending several officers to investigate every minor curfew violation is not an effective use of limited resources.
The force cited examples involving individuals who had briefly left their homes or where police received notifications many hours after an incident.
It insists that officers will continue to respond where an individual presents a risk to the public, particularly when conditions designed to protect a victim have been breached.
The Government has also defended its wider criminal justice reforms.
A spokesperson said: “We will never jeopardise public safety.”
Ministers maintain that they inherited a prison system close to collapse and that failing to take action would have risked the criminal justice system becoming unable to accommodate further offenders.
The Government has pointed to plans for 14,000 additional prison places, an expansion of electronic monitoring and increased investment in the Probation Service as evidence that it is strengthening public protection.
Nevertheless, the latest revelations leave ministers facing difficult questions over whether ambitious promises about electronic monitoring can be matched by the resources needed to enforce them.
For victims of crime and communities concerned about repeat offending, the central issue remains whether restrictions imposed on offenders are being consistently monitored and acted upon.
With police reporting more than 100 electronic tagging breaches a day in the capital alone, and a growing debate over the consequences facing those who ignore court-imposed restrictions, the effectiveness of Labour’s approach to supervising offenders outside prison is likely to face further parliamentary scrutiny.
