MoJ to spend up to £2.9bn on ‘offender monitoring’

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) plans to spend up to £2.9 billion to help improve its electronic monitoring technology to assist in the reduction of prison numbers and strengthen current monitoring curfews.

The new technology will be designed to enforce the curfew of those with community orders, court bail orders or individuals released on licence. The system will include ankle bracelets and hand-held devices which will be able to monitor individuals’ movements and areas they are excluded from.

It follows a rise in the number of criminals monitored electronically, with an estimated nine per cent increase in the past financial year. The current system monitors around 25,000 individuals a day and over 116,000 annually.

The department said it aims to develop the system by seeking maximum alignment between the delivery of its electronic monitoring service; the MoJ`s own Future IT Strategy and the Government’s ICT strategy.

The contract, valued between £583 million and £2.9 billion, is expected to last for six years with further extension possible.

It will see the development of a new national monitoring service for England and Wales, a processing centre, related hardware and software, the deployment of field operatives and a mobile data and voice network for the monitoring service.

Orange has been selected by the Scottish government to provide voice, data and mobile broadband services to ten bodies within the Scottish public sector. The deal is estimated to save the government £1.6 million over the next four years.

Orange has created a dedicated public sector team to be based in its Greenock call centre. In addition to being responsible for customer service, the team will be responsible for the management of the implementation, as well as monitoring network performance on an on-going basis.