Ankle tagging and curfews to be used to ease prison capacity crisis, home secretary suggests

Keir Starmer set to put neighbourhood policing at the centre of his ‘plan for change’ on Thursday

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper during a visit to Lewisham Police Station in south London (AFP/Getty)

The use of ankle tagging and curfews will increase under Labour’s push to increase punishment capacity, Yvette Cooper has suggested.

She said the inheritance from the previous Tory government has left the country in a “complete prison crisis”.

It came after the National Audit Office said the prisons overcrowding crisis is down to the failure of the previous government to make sure policy changes bringing in longer jail sentences and boosting police numbers matched the space available in prisons to hold criminals.

While the new government will seek to boost the number of prison places, Ms Cooper said minister will also make increasing use of other punishments like curfews and ankle tagging.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (Jordan Pettitt/PA) (PA Wire)

It comes as Sir Keir Starmer gears up to put neighbourhood policing at the centre of his “plan for change” being unveiled on Thursday.

Asked if more people could find themselves at home with ankle tags as a result of struggling prison capacity, the home secretary told Sky News: “We obviously inherited a complete prison crisis from the Conservative government.

“The state of things was just shocking, and they hadn’t built the prisons that were promised, the prison places that were needed.

“So the justice secretary Shabana Mahmood is going to be setting out a capacity building program, how we build the additional police places but also how we make sure, as part of the sentencing review, how we do make best use of things like tagging, things like curfews and other kinds of sentencing as well, because we want to make sure that people pay for their crimes.

“We are determined to increase the prison faces to make sure that that happens but alongside that we will do additional things like tagging as well.”

The government announced a sentencing review in October, which will be headed by former Tory justice secretary David Gauke and will look at long-term solutions to prison overcrowding.

It is expected to consider scrapping short-term custodial sentences in favour of community sentences.

In a speech billed as setting out the “next phase” of his Government, Sir Keir is expected to detail ambitious “milestones” for achieving the five missions laid out in Labour’s manifesto.

Downing Street said the milestones would focus on raising living standards, rebuilding Britain, ending hospital backlogs, putting more police on the beat, giving children the best start in life and securing home-grown energy.

Among the promises expected to be announced on Thursday is a guarantee that every neighbourhood will have a named, contactable police officer responsible for dealing with local issues.

The prime minister is expected to describe the move as “a relief to millions of people scared to walk their streets they call home”, and promise a range of policing reforms to improve performance alongside £100 million to support neighbourhood policing.

Chris Philp, Tory shadow home secretary, claimed that the announcement of 13,000 new officers in neighbourhood policing “means 3,000 police will also be cut from 999 response and investigations - making the public less safe.”

But Ms Cooper dismissed this as “just nonsense”, saying the 13,000 will be found by recruiting 3,000 new police officers, 4,000 new PCSOs and 3,000 new special constables, as well as having 3,000 officers redeployed by cutting the bureaucracy between the police and the CPS.

“The bottom line is, we will deliver 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs into our teams right across the country”, she said.