Restrictions on serious sexual and violent criminals forcing them stay in specific areas are being planned by the government.
Offenders would be limited to a geographical zone, policed by tougher monitoring and enhanced tagging, under legislation being drawn up.
While exclusion zones are already used in licence restrictions as somewhere an offender cannot go, the new system would instead specify the confined area where they are allowed to go. Ministers say this would give victims greater peace of mind.
But there are concerns that the plans would place more pressure on the probation service – something the government says it hopes to alleviate with more staff and a greater use of technology.
Presently, serious sexual and violent offenders can be ordered upon release not to enter the area where their victim lives – but outside of these exclusions, there is a risk the two could encounter one another.
Under the government’s plans, the onus would shift to confining the offender to specific areas tailored to them and developed in consultation with the victim, with the possibility of time in prison for those who breach restrictions.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) says this would allow victims to travel free of worry about meeting their attacker.
Victims Minister Alex Davies-Jones said the fresh approach would “give them the peace of mind they deserve and rebuild their lives without fear”.
One domestic abuse victim, named Leanne, told PA news agency she was “ecstatic” about the move.
She said, in her experience, there were “places where I was confronted” even when her abuser had restraining orders in place, and that if “I knew I could go to those places safely, happy days, I’m protected”.
The MoJ says increased tagging of released offenders and a greater reliance on monitoring technology will help ensure the restriction zones are adhered to.
But one probation officer said the new zones would put more pressure on the service when it was already struggling to monitor the number of offenders in the community.
“It’s like they just keep adding to our workload without actually telling us they’re going to be doing that,” they said. “And we just get more stressed and put under pressure. These zones will mean more monitoring and more responsibility for us in probation.”
Last year, the government began releasing thousands of inmates early to ease overcrowding.
While this prevented the UK’s prisons running out of spaces, it was criticised for shifting further pressure on to the probation service and police forces. Meanwhile, some prisoners were released without having monitoring tags fitted.
The MoJ says at least 1,300 new trainee probation officers will be recruited into the service next year to increase its monitoring capacity.
But probation staff have told the it can take between 12 and 24 months to properly train an officer.
Sources say the plans will be attached to the sentencing bill likely to be introduced to Parliament next month.
This bill will probably also seek to reduce the minimum amount of time less serious offenders have to serve to a third of their sentence, as part of efforts to ease prison overcrowding.
These proposals were criticised by victims’ charities and probation staff when announced in May.
