G4S has cemented its position as the world’s leading provider of offender monitoring and technology with the award of a multi-million Euro contract from the French Ministry of Justice, to provide cutting-edge monitoring equipment and software for the national electronic monitoring programme.

Working alongside its French consortium partners Thales and Onet, G4S will provide its latest electronic monitoring devices and software, integrated on secure IT systems which will be hosted by Thales at its secure data centre in Paris. Thales will also manage the distribution logistics for the G4S monitoring devices in mainland France and all French overseas dependencies. Monitoring, contact centre services and training will be provided by Telem, a subsidiary of the French security company, Onet. The four-year contract is extendable up to six years.

The French Ministry of Justice will have the option of using the latest multi-functional GPS tags developed by G4S to continuously track offenders' whereabouts as well as monitoring compliance with traditional curfew based liberty restrictions.

David Byrne, Managing Director of G4S Monitoring Technologies said:

“We are delighted with the opportunity to work with the French Ministry of Justice. Its electronic monitoring programme has grown to be one of the largest in the world with over 10,000 offenders monitored at any one time and this growth is expected to continue.

“The Ministry will be able to benefit from G4S’ latest GPS tracking and Radio Frequency products. These allow offenders to be continuously tracked as well as ensuring they comply with traditional curfew based monitoring conditions. Working with our partners Thales and Onet, we will provide a completely integrated and highly secure approach to all aspects of systems and service delivery enabling the Ministry to achieve new levels of service excellence with absolute assurance of security at all times.

“We are fully committed to supporting the Ministry’s objectives of providing a cost-effective, secure and robust means of monitoring offenders in the community, helping to safeguard the public and reduce re-offending. G4S has unrivalled experience of delivering innovative offender monitoring solutions in more than 15 countries, and we look forward to helping the Ministry of Justice further develop the very successful electronic monitoring programme operational in France.”

All monitoring equipment and software is being developed at G4S’ Monitoring Technologies’ base in Leicester. Up to 16,000 devices will be manufactured there for this contract, creating additional employment opportunities in the local community.

• A short animated film, in French, is available to view on the G4S YouTube channel 
• G4S is the world leader in the provision of electronic monitoring services and technology, and the largest provider of services, monitoring over 50,000 subjects every day, in over 15 countries

People subject to electronic monitoring are usually sentenced to a curfew or ‘restriction’. When a person is under restriction they must stay at home (or other specified place) during certain hours. This is usually for 12 hours during a 24 hour period, every day of the week. The hours can vary depending on circumstances, but most restrictions are at night. Checks are made that people are complying with their restriction, using an electronic tag and a monitoring unit. Restrictions are used throughout the criminal and youth justice systems (as a community sentence or as a condition of release from prison)