Official Statistics

Annex: Management Information, Electronic Monitoring Status Statistics: September 2026

Published 22 October 2026

Applies to England and Wales

1. Statistician’s comment

This annex provides management information (MI) on the monitoring status of individuals with an Electronic Monitoring (EM) order and should be read alongside the September 2026 EM quarterly statistical release. It includes information on both individuals who have been assigned equipment^{[footnote 1]} (as reported in the quarterly release) and those who have not. The figures are broken down into five main EM cohorts: court bail, court sentence, post-release, immigration, and specials^{[footnote 2]} . This MI has been developed in response to user demand for more comprehensive insight into the monitoring status of individuals subject to an EM order and will be published quarterly.

2. Background

Electronic monitoring (EM) is a tool used in England and Wales to support the work of the justice system including probation, prisons, courts and the police. It is also used by the Home Office to monitor immigration orders. EM is a way of remotely monitoring and recording information on an individual’s whereabouts and/or alcohol consumption using an electronic device that is typically fitted to an individual’s ankle.

An individual may be given several orders at the same time. In this report, if an individual has multiple orders, they will be included in one order type cohort once, using the same methodology as the main statistical release.

3. Monitoring Status

Statistics on monitoring status were developed in June 2026 to provide a more complete picture of individuals subject to an EM order. While the quarterly publication focuses on people who have had EM equipment assigned, this annex provides a broader picture by covering everyone with an EM order, including people who do not have equipment assigned.

To support publication of these statistics, a second data-cleansing exercise was undertaken for the EM court bail cohort in September 2026. This followed an initial data-cleansing exercise conducted across all EM cohorts in June 2026 and addressed additional EM court bail orders requiring closure. These included expired orders that remained active on the EM supplier database and expired orders where monitoring equipment had been assigned but had not communicated for more than 14 days. This work improved the accuracy and reliability of the underlying data.

Statistics on monitoring status are based on installation outcomes and the communication status of the monitoring equipment. This allows individuals to be grouped into two main categories:

• Individuals without EM equipment: People with an EM order that do not have the minimum equipment installed to be classed as electronically monitored. This is an additional cohort, not covered by the quarterly statistical release.
• Individuals with EM equipment: People with an EM order that have the minimum required EM equipment successfully installed. This is the same cohort addressed by the September 2026 quarterly statistical release. This annex splits the cohort by whether the equipment is actively communicating.

3.1 Individuals without EM equipment

There were 5,041 individuals not assigned with equipment as at 30 September 2026 (source: table 6.1), or 15% of individuals who have an EM order. This compares to 5,043 individuals as at 30 June 2026, a decrease of less than 0.5%.

Court bail made up the largest volume of those without equipment, with 2,577 individuals (51% of those without equipment). This was followed by post-release with 1,657 individuals (33%), court sentence with 647 individuals (13%), and immigration with 159 individuals (3%). Specials had the lowest volume, with 1 individual without equipment (due to their order starting on 30 September 2026, it had not yet reached the expected timeframe for equipment to be installed). Compared to 30 June 2026, court bail is the only cohort that decreased (down 5%, 127 individuals), which is in part due to the data-cleansing exercise that was undertaken for the court bail cohort in September 2026.

Reasons individuals are not assigned equipment can relate to actions of the individual subject to the EM order or issues with service provision, including:

• Not at address: The person was not at the address when installation was attempted. This may be because they were away, had moved, were in hospital, or were in custody.
• Property or access issues: Installation could not take place because there was a problem with the property, access to the property, or the location could not be found.
• Withdrawal of consent: The person no longer agreed to the installation. This may have been stated directly or shown through their actions during the visit.
• Medical reasons: Installation could not be completed because of a medical condition or health-related issue, such as a skin condition, injury, circulatory problem, or medical device.
• No record of install: No information about the installation visit was available in the EM supplier’s records. This may be because the order was created before the current supplier’s contract began.
• Issue with installation or equipment: An installation visit took place, but there has been a problem with the installation or equipment (e.g. faulty, missing, or removed equipment).
• Within 2 days of order start or order end: The order was still within the two-day period allowed for installation, or the order was due to end within two days, and equipment was being removed from the case.
• In custody: Records showed that the person was in custody on 30 September 2026, based on information held in the prison system.
• Other reasons: The installation could not be completed for a reason that does not fit into the categories above. Examples include safety concerns, behaviour-related issues, or situations where a responsible adult was not present for a child.

These reasons are captured by operational staff and are inherently subject to individual judgement and interpretation.

Figure 1: Number of individuals without EM equipment by reason, as at 30 September 2026, England and Wales (Source: Table 6.1)

• Reasons equipment is not installed primarily relate to actions of the individual, with ‘not at address’ as the most common reason for being without equipment (26%). This was followed by ‘being in custody’ (24%) and ‘issue with installation or equipment’ (16%). This is a change from 30 June 2026 which had ‘issue with installation or equipment’ as the second most common reason for being without equipment, and ‘being in custody’ as the third.
• With the exception of post-release and special orders, ‘not at address’ was the most common reason for each order type. For post-release, ‘being in custody’ was most common (32%).
• Compared to 30 June 2026, the number of individuals with ‘being in custody’ as the reason for being without equipment increased across all cohorts, with the exception of immigration. Overall, the number of individuals without equipment due to ‘being in custody’ increased from 901 to 1,231 (up 37%), with post-release having the largest increase from 334 to 526 (up 57%).

3.2 Individuals with EM equipment

‘Individuals with EM equipment’ refers to people who have had the required EM equipment successfully installed for their monitoring order (or if they have multiple orders, it is installed for at least one of them). This is the same cohort addressed by the September 2026 EM quarterly statistical release. These cases are split into two groups based on whether equipment is communicating with the central monitoring system:

• Actively communicating: Any of the EM equipment has sent a signal to central monitoring systems within the past 14 days. This can be any one of the following: home monitoring unit, base station, non-fitted device, or tag (where no home monitoring unit is present).
• Not actively communicating: No signal has been received within the last 14 days.

The 14-day period was selected for reporting and analysis purposes. It provides a consistent threshold for cases to be confidently classified as not actively communicating, reducing the likelihood that temporary interruptions in communication are counted as non-communication. This timeframe also allows sufficient time for any related operational activity, such as investigating the issue or breach, to be recorded in the data. It should not be interpreted as a policy requirement or as an indication of when operational action should be taken. Reasons equipment is not actively communicating can be due to non-compliance with the EM order, interference or damage to equipment, technical fault, or power disruption.

Figure 2: Number of individuals with EM equipment by communication status, as at 30 September 2026, England and Wales (Source: Table 6.2)

• The number of individuals with equipment actively communicating is 94% (25,939 individuals), substantially higher than the proportion not actively communicating (6%, 1,557 individuals). These proportions remain the same as at 30 June 2026.
• Individuals in the special cohort had the highest proportion of individuals with actively communicating equipment (99%). This was closely followed by those in the post-release and court sentence cohorts (97%).
• The immigration cohort has the lowest proportion actively communicating (89%, 3,616 individuals). Unlike equipment provided to other cohorts, the equipment supplied to this cohort requires periodic charging from a mains power supply. This additional requirement may contribute to a slightly higher proportion of individuals becoming out of contact. Compared to 30 June 2026, immigration remains the cohort with the lowest proportion of individuals actively communicating. However, the proportion has increased slightly over this time period, from 86% to 89%.

4. Further information

4.1 Accompanying files

This Annex bulletin is published alongside the following products as part of this release:

• EM statistics publication bulletin
• EM statistics data tables
• Annex data tables
• Technical note

4.2 Management Information (MI)

MI is data collected primarily for operational and administrative purposes to support the management, monitoring and delivery of services. It provides a timely indication of activity and outcomes and is used internally to inform operational and policy decisions. Unlike official statistics, MI has not necessarily been produced under the full range of statistical quality assurance processes and may be subject to further validation and refinement.

This annex presents MI relating to monitoring status of individuals with an EM order by cohort. The information is published to provide additional transparency and insight into service delivery. It is not classified as official statistics, reflecting ongoing work to assess data quality, completeness and methodological consistency before potential inclusion within the regular EM official statistics publication.

4.3 Future publications

Our statisticians regularly review the content of publications. Development of new and improved statistical outputs is usually dependent on reallocating existing resources. As part of our continual review and prioritisation, we welcome user feedback on existing outputs including content, breadth, frequency and methodology. Please send any comments you have on this publication including suggestions for further developments or reductions in content.

4.4 Contact

Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice press office.

Other enquiries about these statistics should be directed to Youth Justice and Offender Policy Directorate at the Ministry of Justice:

Electronic Monitoring Performance and Statistics
Youth Justice and Offender Policy
Ministry of Justice
10th Floor
102 Petty France
London SW1H 9AJ

Email: ppas_statistics@justice.gov.uk

© Crown copyright Produced by the Ministry of Justice

Alternative formats are available on request from ppas_statistics@justice.gov.uk.

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Footnotes

1. Equipment refers to one or more of the following: a home monitoring unit, base station, non-fitted device, or tag. One or more of these may be installed depending on the circumstances of an order. ↩

2. This group comprises of a small number of individuals who are intensively monitored. See Annex A of the technical note. ↩