England and Wales
We hold contracts with the Home Office covering about 40% of England and Wales, covering the West Midlands, Wales, London and Eastern England. More than 110,000 people have passed through our monitoring programme.
Electronic tagging can be used at any stage of the criminal justice system - when an individual is on bail awaiting trial, on conviction as an alternative to custody, or as part of an early release from prison.
For any type of monitoring, Serco fits an electronic tag and instals equipment in the curfew subject's home. We also monitor the tag to ensure it is working correctly and the subject is obeying his or her curfew order. We investigate apparent breaches of a curfew and, once confirmed, report them to the relevant authorities. The authority decides what action to take over the breach.
Types of order
Curfew as a condition of bail: Electronic tagging can be ordered by a court as a condition of bail. (The police have no powers to impose tagging as part of police bail.) Any breaches of curfew are reported by Serco to the police.
Curfew as a community punishment: Tagging can be the only punishment imposed by a court, or can be combined with other measures such as unpaid work or attending a rehabilitative course or drug treatment programme.
If a curfew order is the sole punishment, Serco will prosecute curfew breaches in court, which will decide whether to impose additional punishments. If the curfew is just one element of a punishment, we will report a breach to the supervising authority - either the probation service or, for juveniles, the Youth Offending Team.
Home detention curfew - for offenders released early from prison. Any breaches of curfew are reported to the Home Office Release and Recall Section, which will decide what action to take. This may include recalling the prisoner to custody.