Labour ready for rethink on tagging

Labour is to meet a private security company to discuss electronic tagging of offenders, in another toughening of its law-and-order stance.

The move marks an historic shift in the party's opposition to electronic monitoring which, when it was first tested in Britain, was fiercely attacked by Labour.

In recent months, security firms have made big technological strides, and Labour now regards itself as "agnostic" on tagging. A senior source said that the issue now was about the practicality of current schemes.

The meeting between Securicor and two Labour front-bench spokesmen on Home Affairs, Alun Michael and George Howarth, is scheduled to take place in November.

Discussions will also include regulation of the security industry and privatised prison escorts.

Ministers were widely mocked for the failure of early tagging experiments. Several offenders simply tore off their manacles and the first taggee broke his curfew 40 times.

But Jack Straw, the shadow home secretary, who has taken a hard line on crime, has been careful not to commit himself against tagging - which he has seen in action in Baltimore in the USA.

Further, the Home Office claims that the latest trials in Manchester, Reading and Norfolk, due to run until next spring, are "proving very successful".

About 100 people have been tagged to enforce court orders with government contracts involving two firms, Securicor and Geographix. Increasingly, ministers believe that tagging can be an alternative to the expense of sending offenders to prison and could eventually reduce the need to build new prisons.

Earlier this year, the Home Office Minister, Baroness Blatch, said she would consider using electronic tagging to supervise sex offenders. Lady Blatch said she was "alive to other uses of this curfew order".

One idea is to restrict the movements of convicted child-sex offenders when children are entering and leaving schools.

Labour is concerned about the costs of enforcing the system, which requires police to arrest those who break the terms of their curfew. It is cheaper in America because offenders tend to be concentrated in inner-city ghetto areas. The Opposition is also keen to ensure that tagging does not extend to people who would normally have been given bail.

A spokeswoman for Securicor said: "We are happy with the way the trials have progressed. We hope to continue working with government on this matter."