A stakeholder awareness video introducing the Alcohol Abstinence and Monitoring Requirement (AAMR) with interviews from Kit Malthouse MP, Lucy Frazer QC MP, the Judiciary, EM Policy and Probation. This video covers how the alcohol monitoring tags work, the eligibility criteria and suitability considerations for an AAMR, what happens in the event of a breach and the main benefits for key stakeholder groups.
[Lucy Frazer QC MP – MP Minister of State for Justice] We’re introducing alcohol monitoring tags because we know that 39 percent of crimes are fuelled by alcohol and we want to do is to stop offenders drinking, remaining sober so they stop committing crimes. It's primarily a punitive requirement which will ban the offender from drinking alcohol for up to a maximum of 120 days.
[Robyn Malan de Merindol – Electronic Monitoring Policy] And that ban comes into effect as soon as the order is imposed, even before the tag gets fitted. Somebody could be eligible for AAMR when they're going to be sentenced to a community order or suspended sentence order for an offence that is alcohol related or an associated offence that's alcohol related. AAMR can only be imposed on adult offenders and it can't be imposed where the subject is alcohol dependent or alongside an alcohol treatment requirement.
[Alice Glaister – National Probation Service] The suitability for it is assessed by way of an AUDIT tool which assists the assessing probation officer to come to a determination about whether the defendant's consumption of alcohol is low, medium or high. Risk of dependency can be used in domestic abuse scenarios, but not unless it's supported with other rehabilitative requirements that will address the underpinning criminogenic factors in this case.
[Becky Bailey - Probation] And the other positive thing about this is that we can use this requirement for people who have no fixed abode. And in fact, one of our first cases in the pilot was a homeless service user, and they found that the structure of coming into the probation officer was as much benefit wearing the tag itself.
[Robyn Malan de Merindol – Electronic Monitoring Policy]] The alcohol monitoring tags work by taking a sample of sweat from between the body of the tag, the subject she's wearing, the type that information is stored on the tag for up to 30 days.
[Robyn Malan de Merindol – Electronic Monitoring Policy]] The subject will have an agreed time when the data is going to be uploaded, usually every 24 hours when the subject is within 10 metres of the base station. At the agreed time, the base station will draw the information from the tag, uploading it, and from there it goes on to be analysed. Once the analysis is complete, the information is available to the responsible officer within 24 hours of that upload time.
[Alexia Fetherstonhaugh JP – Regional Leadership Magistrate for London] In the event of a breach, the case will be brought back to the court. If it does come back to court, the court will have a full and detailed report before them. This will include all of the confirmed breaches. For example, we would know if someone had had a drink of alcohol or whether they had washed their hands and hand sanitiser but had alcohol in it, which obviously wouldn't constitute a breach. The detail and the clarity of the report really helps the court make the right decision.
[Kit Malthouse MP – Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Justice] So one of the great things we know about sobriety monitoring is that we've seen enormous compliance in the two pilots that we've run in this country, both in London and in North Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Humberside. We saw incredibly high compliance up in the high 90th percentile.
[Nigel McLean – District Judge (Magistrate’s courts)] From the offenders’ perspective, it provides them with an opportunity to reflect on just how much of an impact alcohol has had on their lives and on their offending.
[Becky Bailey - Probation] And there are also wider social benefits so people told us about improved relationships, they told us about improved ability to sustain employment, improve finances because they weren't spending the money on alcohol. So the benefit of this intervention to victims is that they’re given assurance that the offenders are being continuously monitored and their alcohol use is being addressed. And we saw this was really powerful, particularly in cases of domestic abuse, where the offender was potentially still living with the victim. And in these cases, we were also able to share information with other agencies such as children's services, substance misuse providers or the police, which made a really effective way of multiagency management.
[Alexia Fetherstonhaugh JP – Regional Leadership Magistrate for London] Used the right way, this order can be a really robust way of focusing directly on the context of the offending.
[Becky Bailey - Probation] The benefit of AAMR is it gives probation officers a direct line of sight to the amount of alcohol someone’s consuming and this works in two ways: the service users knew that they were absolutely accountable so if they started to drink, the probation officer would know, and probation officers were confident that if they became aware that someone was drinking, they would be able to respond in terms of the appropriate risk management measures.
[Kit Malthouse MP – Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Justice] So I'm very excited about the introduction of AAMR because it's been the culmination of a ten year long campaign for me. I first brought this tool, if you like, from crime fighting to London when I was deputy mayor for policing there and it's been enormously satisfying to sign it into law for roll out across England, Wales, because I think it holds out the promise of a revolution in the way we deal with alcohol related crime across the whole of the country.