Explanatory note

The Management of Offenders (Scotland) Act 2019 (“the 2019 Act”) makes provision allowing the courts when making certain disposals to require a person to submit to electronic monitoring of their compliance with a condition attached to their disposal. The Scottish Ministers can do the same for an individual being released from custody on licence. Section 8 of the 2019 Act gives the Scottish Ministers the power by regulations to prescibe “approved devices” which can be used for electronic monitoring. The types of electronic devices which are approved devices are prescribed in the Electronic Monitoring (Approved Devices) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 (“the 2020 Regulations”).

These Regulations amend the 2020 Regulations to prescribe GPS enabled electronic monitoring devices as approved devices in relation to a monitoring requirement imposed by the Scottish Ministers on an individual being released from custody on licence.

Regulation 3 amends regulation 1(3) of the 2020 Regulations to insert definitions relevant to GPS electronic monitoring devices and to amend the existing definition of “personal identification device” in consequence. Further amendments are made to the existing definitions in the 2020 Regulations of “home monitoring unit” and “fitting and installation tool” to reflect that they can be used with both GPS electronic monitoring devices and radio frequency (“RF”) monitoring devices.

Regulation 4 amends regulation 2 of the 2020 Regulations to distinguish between approved devices available to the court to use in relation to a relevant disposal under sections 1 and 3 of the 2019 Act and approved devices available to the Scottish Ministers in relation to releasing a prisoner on a relevant licence condition under sections 5 and 7 of the 2019 Act. Only RF electonic monitoring devices will be available to the court in relation to a relevant disposal. Both RF and GPS electronic monitoring devices will be available to the Scottish Ministers in relation to releasing a prisoner on a relevant licence condition. This is subject to any limits on the use of the approved devices as provided in the Electronic Monitoring (Use of Devices and Information) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (“the 2025 Regulations”). The 2025 Regulations limit GPS enabled approved devices for use only when releasing a prisoner on a home detention curfew licence under section 3AA of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993.