HC Deb 02 March 1998 vol 307 cc697-8
9. Miss McIntosh

What savings in the prisons budget he estimates will accrue from the extension of electronic tagging. [30347]

Ms Quin

It is estimated that home detention curfew may avoid the need for expenditure on about 3,000 new prison places, which would have cost £90 million per year. Other uses of electronic monitoring, if applied nationally, could also impact on demand for prison places.

Miss McIntosh

Although we welcome the zeal of converts to electronic tagging, do the Government appreciate that it is better for the courts to decide who should be electronically tagged and which prisoners are eligible for early release? Will the Minister agree to extend electronic tagging to child curfew orders, which the Home Secretary mentioned earlier, and to persistent sex offenders?

Ms Quin

Given that it is people who are coming to the end of their sentence who are eligible for home detention curfew, we believe that it is quite right for the decision to be taken by prison authorities, together with experts who can make the appropriate risk assessment.

Mr. Bermingham

I welcome tagging and anything else that reduces the number of people who are incarcerated in prison—sometimes for long periods, despite the fact that the punitive impact of a short sentence would be equally effective—but will my hon. Friend consider other methods, such as the reintroduction of suspended sentences, which were extremely effective in the past?

Ms Quin

We are considering such methods, but we believe that electronic monitoring can provide a structured transition from custody to release during which, we hope, it will help to stop people reoffending in future.

Sir Brian Mawhinney

Can the Minister assure the House that no prisoners serving sentences for rape, serious sexual offences or child abuse will be allowed out early under any tagging programme?

Ms Quin

As I have told the right hon. Gentleman before, the most important consideration is risk assessment. We are, in this instance, talking about people who are serving four years or fewer and who will be released anyway. We believe that we have a responsibility to make that release as structured as possible, but we shall be extremely careful about risk assessment in the cases that he mentions.