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Putting the government's alcohol monitors to the test
Posted
February 5, 2026
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February 5, 2026
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6:52Now PlayingTequila shots, pints of beer and double vodkas: enough to get me drunk on a weekday afternoon.
But when I met with the Sentencing Minister, Jake Richards, in a pub, it wasn’t for a social meeting.
An hour earlier, I’d been fitted with an ankle tag; a crucial piece of tech which ministers are relying on heavily to push through reforms to the criminal justice system, and help overcrowded prisons breathe.
I was being treated like a convict.
The Ministry of Justice wanted to show me how quickly they’d know if I had broken a condition of my getting out of jail, or even avoiding a custodial sentence altogether, if alcohol had played a role in my offending.
The tag is a light but chunky piece of kit that’s attached to your leg and measures your ‘sweat’ for any traces of alcohol.
The number of offenders using them in England and Wales has increased by 17 per cent in three months - with 4,287 alcohol monitoring orders in place in December 2025.
New sentencing laws are about to see that figure increase further, with a presumption against jail terms of under 12 months and a bigger focus on community punishments.
Jake Richards, as he sipped a pint of lager with me, hailed the success they’ve seen so far with alcohol monitoring.
“97 per cent of people on these tags don’t go back to booze,” he said, “so we’re greatly expanding and investing in their use to try and cut crime.
“The vast majority of people can go to the pub and enjoy a few drinks and get on with their lives but for others it's a real catalyst for criminal behaviour.
“Alcohol-related crime costs the economy over £20 billion a year, and there are high streets and areas where people don’t go after dark because they know people are getting drunk, so this could be quite transformative for those areas.”
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