LONDON, Feb.16 (Xinhua) -- A tagging scheme using satellite technology to track criminals and offenders is to be rolled out nationally across England and Wales, British Justice Secretary David Gauke announced Saturday.
Gauke said the national roll out of new GPS tags by this summer will provide 24/7 location monitoring of offenders to better protect victims.
The new technology is also set to be piloted by London Mayor Sadiq Khan's Office for Policing and Crime to monitor offenders released from prison who have been convicted of knife crime offences.
Offenders will have their movements checked against locations of reported crimes, in an effort to tackle violence in the British capital.
The new tracking measures follow three pilot schemes which showed the technology had produced positive results.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said if a tagged domestic abuser or stalker enters a banned area or a gang member is found somewhere they should not be, an alert will be automatically be triggered and their whereabouts will be known.
"Victims can now feel safer in the knowledge that any breach of an exclusion zone will result in an immediate alert," said the MoJ in London.
Gauke said: "GPS tagging will help better protect victims and give reassurance that perpetrators will not be able to breach an exclusion zone without triggering an immediate alert.
"I am confident that this important new technology will become a vital tool to increase public protection and strengthen options for tougher community sentences."
The GPS tags have been piloted in three regions, the North West, Midlands and North East, with other regions due to go live in the coming months. The tags will be available across England and Wales by the summer.
Tags will transmit an offender's location 24/7 to a specialist monitoring unit in Manchester and if an offender enters an excluded zone and breaches conditions, they face being recalled to prison or returned to a law court.
The location monitoring can be used to keep a distance from a victim's address or that of a known criminal associate, or monitor an offender's attendance at a certain activity, such as a work or a rehabilitation program.
Around 60,000 people in England and Wales are already tagged and monitored under existing rules.
