More than 97% of offenders on sobriety tags have stayed off
alcohol, a year after they were introduced in England following a
successful pilot in Wales.
Since the tags were launched as part of government plans to curb
drink-fuelled crime, 3,121 offenders have been monitored by the
tags, with more than 3,000 staying sober.
Alcohol plays a part in 39 per cent of all violent crime in the
UK, and the social and economic cost of drink-related harm is
estimated to be around £21.5 billion per year.
As a result of the scheme’s success, the Ministry of Justice
will roll out alcohol-monitoring tags to other
offenders once they are released from prison in the summer.
Further details will be announced in the coming months.
By 2025 it is estimated that 12,000 offenders will have had their
drinking monitored by the tags – part of the Government’s £183
million expansion of electronic monitoring.
Minister of State for Crime and Policing said:
We are ramping up our use of this innovative technology because
it is working, with offenders staying sober 97 per cent of the
time.
It is not only protecting the public from the scourge of
alcohol-fuelled crime - it also gives probation officers the
chance to work with offenders to help them turn their lives
around.
Since last April, courts have been able to order offenders to
wear an alcohol tag as part of a community sentence when their
crime was driven by alcohol. The tag takes a sample of their
sweat every 30 minutes and alerts the Probation Service if the
offender has been drinking.
Those found breaking their ban can face a prison sentence and
fines.
Roughly 20 per cent of offenders supervised by the Probation
Service have an alcohol problem. The service provides
professional support to offenders with an alcohol misuse issue,
monitoring risk and helping them address their consumption while
also linking them into specialist help.
Mark*, aged 44 from Hereford, was sentenced to a Community Order,
and required to wear an alcohol-monitoring tag for 90 days after
being arrested for drink driving. He has also been banned from
the road for 30 months and received 100 hours Community Payback.
Mark said:
I was pulled over on a Saturday morning and was
devastated to blow over the limit. Like many others, during
lockdown a drink at the weekend had turned into maybe a glass of
wine during the week and it made me reflect.
I’ve not found wearing the tag hard, but it has given me extra
motivation to reduce my intake.
The government is investing £183 million into the expansion of
electronic monitoring. As well as sobriety devices, GPS
monitoring equipment is now deployed across 19 police force areas
– roughly half of England and Wales - so that burglars, robbers
and thieves that have served a prison sentence of a year or more
are tagged on release. Their whereabouts will be monitored by GPS
satellites for up to 12 months.
*Mark is not the offender’s real name.
Notes to editors
- The Alcohol Abstinence and Monitoring Requirement was
launched a year ago in England following the successful launch in
Wales in October 2020.
- Alcohol Monitoring on Licence was launched in Wales in
November 2021 and will be rolled out to England this summer.
- The Crime Survey indicated that 39% of victims of serious
offences believed that alcohol played a factor in the
incident: click to
read England’s survey and
Wales.
