Only 1 in 10 deportees are tagged

FEWER than one in ten foreign criminals walking Britain’s streets while awaiting deportation are being monitored with electronic tags.

Ministers have admitted that only 492 of the 5,789 overseas offenders living in the community are being tracked.

It means the authorities are not routinely keeping tabs on offenders, including violent thugs and rapists, after they have been freed from prison. Former Home Secretary Theresa May revealed the information in a letter to Home Affairs select committee chairman Keith Vaz.

She also confirmed that 26 foreign criminals freed from jails by Labour’s then Home Secretary Charles Clarke in 2006, without being considered for deportation, have yet to be found.