Police to reduce enforcement of minor tag breaches

The Metropolitan Police is reducing enforcement of offenders who breach their tag conditions amid resourcing pressures and following early prisoner release.

Under a pilot scheme running until the spring, officers will not act on breaches of curfews or tag batteries of under an hour, unless the person wearing the tag is considered to be of particular risk to the public.

The country's largest police force has been clear in its instruction to officers that these types of breach notifications are still to be reviewed, but will only progress to potential arrest in cases where there are risk or safeguarding concerns.

High-risk offenders, such as domestic abusers, will be prioritised.

The government says this pilot applies to offenders, or alleged offenders awaiting trial, that have been bailed by the courts. Early prisoner release offenders who wear tags are managed by probation, who notify the police if there are breaches. The police are tasked with responding to all types of breaches, and the Met say that these changes are about assessing the risk of a breach, rather than determining what type of offender they are.

It comes after public warnings from Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley about the pressures imposed by the government's early release scheme, which he has said he's "worried" about.

The Met says it's arresting two or three early release prisoners per week who are being recalled to prison because of further offending, with Commissioner Rowley saying his officers are policing "over 100 tag breaches a day".

The pilot is designed to increase capacity for officers to manage higher risk enforcement or persistent offending, and is expected to reduce breaches requiring police action by more than 15%.

Sky News spent time with a Met police unit in south London, tracking 'wanted' offenders, who breach licence or tag conditions.

One sergeant told us "there are not enough cops" to manage the early release of thousands of offenders.

Sometimes breaches that show up on the system have an innocent explanation - like the offender leaving their property to go to hospital, or even outside the perimeter of the property which they're confined to.

At other times, there are lags in the system meaning the authorities aren't notified for a considerable amount of time. In that time, crimes can be committed.

The government said that after inheriting a prison system "on the brink of collapse", failing to act would have forced police "to halt arrests, putting communities at untold risk".

A spokesperson added: "We will never jeopardise public safety. To manage offenders out on licence, we are rolling out the toughest-ever controls, including world-first restriction zones, the largest expansion of electronic tagging, and giving victims a say in licence conditions."

The government also stressed that they were "putting thousands more" neighbourhood police officers on to the streets, increasing police funding to £18.5bn and "taking investment in the probation service to record levels".

Early prisoner release, brought in to manage prison overcrowding, has been a controversial feature of the criminal justice system for a number of years under successive governments.

More from Sky News:
Storm Boelo latest
French police clash with protesters

It means that serious criminals can be released halfway through their sentences, as opposed to two-thirds under the old rules, while those in prison for less serious crimes can be freed after serving only a third of their sentence behind bars.

Offenders then serve the remainder of their sentence with licence conditions, and wear tags. Electronic tagging is also used for people on bail or awaiting trial.

The Met Police told Sky News in response that "in the type of cases where breaches have previously not resulted in any consequence through the court system, we are working with partners to explore the most appropriate penalty or consequence, so that police time can be focused where it has the greatest impact".

A spokesperson for the force added: "That means freeing up officers to focus on work that better protects the public, including pursuing offenders responsible for high-risk breaches.

"Where offenders have briefly stepped outside for a cigarette, or police are notified 19 hours later that they were 15 minutes late returning home, tying up several officers for hours is not the best use of resources."

(c) Sky News 2026: Police to reduce enforcement of minor tag breaches