Alex Norris has been unable to say how many prisoners freed early from jail this week have been tagged, despite previous reassurances from the justice department.
In an interview on Sunday, the justice secretary said it was “too soon” to say how many of the roughly 700 male prisoners let out on Thursday had been fitted with monitoring devices.
The government has introduced a “presumption of electronic tagging” for offenders released early from prisons in England and Wales to help manage severe overcrowding.
The first wave of releases began on Thursday, with nearly 5,000 prisoners due to be freed in stages over the next year as the Sentencing Act 2026 comes into force.
Asked how many of those released so far had been tagged, Norris told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I don’t have that figure today, it only happened on Thursday. You know, there can be a bit of a lag.
“We don’t have that number. But you know, we’re very candid about who’s leaving prison and when they do.”
Asked if he knew if released domestic abusers have been tagged or not, he said: “It would be too soon to know that, as it was only on Thursday. We’ve been talking to every victim to to offer them the chance to say what controls they’d like to see over that individual.
“I’m well aware of the past in tagging. Over the last year, performance has increased significantly.”
Several prisoners released last week told the Guardian that they had not been tagged.
Michael Bogle, a former bus driver who left HMP Wandsworth on Thursday having served 78 days in prison after breaching a 32-week suspended sentence for shoplifting, said he had no idea when he was going to be tagged. “I have an appointment with probation officers on Thursday, but as far I know it could take months before I actually get given a tag,” he said.
Bogle, who is taking anti-psychotic drugs and has more than 100 convictions including for common assault and drug possession, was told in prison that he would be housed in a bail hostel and had been promised a place in south-east London. However, he said he had instead been housed in a bed and breakfast facility in north-west London.
“I am running out of money, and if I have to shoplift a sandwich to stop being hungry, I will just have to do it,” he said. “I won’t have a choice. But I really do not want to go back to prison – it is a pigeon-infested, rat-infested place and people are dying in the conditions there.”
Prisoners thanked the prime minister as they celebrated walking free from jail on Thursday. One told the press as he left HMP Durham: “Justice system, what justice system? Thank you, Andy Burnham.”
A prisoner released from HMP Cardiff after being jailed for burglary said he would “probably be back in the next month or two”.
Ministers intervened to exclude rapists and the most serious child sexual offenders from early release, after criticism of the policy over the summer.
The rules will also not apply to those guilty of manslaughter, such as the killers of PC Andrew Harper, who died in the line of duty in 2019.
