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 to prescribe by regulations “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 a court under section 1(1) of the 2019 Act. They remove the distinction between devices approved for use for monitoring compliance with relevant court disposals and relevant licence conditions imposed by the Scottish Ministers. The approved devices for both are now a GPS personal identification device, an RF personal identification device, a home monitoring unit, a fitting and installation tool, a mains charger and a portable charger.