Clueless! Minister admits he has no idea how many freed inmates are tagged

Published: 23:41 BST, 4 October 2026 | Updated: 23:41 BST, 4 October 2026

The Justice Secretary has admitted he does not know how many prisoners freed early from prison have been tagged.

Alex Norris claimed it was 'too soon' to know which of the 700 criminals let out of jail last week had been fitted with the electronic devices that monitor their movements.

It comes as Labour scrapped plans to tackle a massive courts case backlog by curbing jury trials following a backlash.

Mr Norris said the proposals would have slowed down justice reforms and insisted the backlog will still fall despite the U-turn.

His comments on tagging come despite his department claiming on Thursday, when the first tranche of inmates were released under Labour's controversial scheme to reduce jail overcrowding, that 'offenders leaving prison from today will be monitored under the toughest supervision in British history'.

Under what the Ministry of Justice branded the 'biggest ever expansion of electronic monitoring in British history', there is now meant to be a 'presumption that offenders will be electronically tagged and monitored when they leave prison'.

But asked by the BBC on Sunday how many of those released early had been tagged, he admitted: 'I don't have that figure today, it only happened on Thursday. You know, there can be a bit of a lag.'

He said some criminals are now being tagged as they leave prison, but this was only under a pilot project, and that for others 'sometimes it can take a little bit of time'.

Alex Norris has admitted he does not know how many prisoners freed early from prison have been tagged (pictured at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool last week)

Told that some of those set free were domestic abusers, whose victims are now living in fear, Mr Norris said: 'With regards to domestic abuse, the Prime Minister was clear, I was too, we would like to have gone further.

'We haven't been able to because the alternative would've been no prison places being available which meant perpetrators being bailed back to home. So our mitigation of that is to put those controls in place.'

Asked how the public can have faith in the promised safeguards given that 5,000 offenders have been allowed to flout court orders requiring them to wear tags, he said: 'I'm well aware of the past in tagging. Over the last year performance has increased significantly.'

Mr Norris was also challenged over how Labour can tackle the backlog of Crown Court trials now that he has scrapped curbs on jury trials proposed by his predecessor David Lammy. Under his changes to the Courts Bill, judges will only sit alone for complex fraud cases.

He insisted the backlog would still fall, including by removing the 'right to elect' that lets some defendants choose jury trial.

'So the court will decide whether a case is heard in the magistrates or heard in the Crown Court. Similarly, restricting the context in which a case tried in the Magistrates Court can have an appeal in the Crown Court. We're increasing the length of sentences that magistrates can pass so they can do more cases,' Mr Norris told Sky News.

'So all of that will reroute cases through the system in a way that means that they get dealt with more quickly because, as I say at the moment, those waiting lists are unacceptable. This package will indeed drive them down.'