Experts and senior police figures have warned that email-based alerts for electronic tag breaches are too slow to protect domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking victims, particularly as thousands of offenders are due to be released early from prison from October under the government's early release scheme. Currently, when a tagged offender breaches an exclusion zone, probation officers only receive an email notification, meaning no action may be taken until the next working day if the breach occurs outside office hours, leaving victims potentially unprotected overnight or over weekends.

Tag breaches in London alone rose by nearly 50 per cent in six months, from 2,977 in January to 4,408 in July, with breaches ranging from contacting or attacking victims to removing tags or entering banned areas. The Ministry of Justice is developing real-time GPS tracking that would alert probation staff within five to 15 minutes, but this remains in early trials in London and the West Midlands and is not expected nationally until the end of 2027, over a year after the early release scheme begins. Chief probation inspector Martin Jones, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, victims' commissioner Claire Waxman and probation union chief Ben Cockburn all raised concerns about the system's readiness, funding and evaluation.