Frequently asked questions
Accessing the new Electronic Monitoring Order (EMO) Service
Q: As a new user, do I need to request for EMO role to be added to our DPS main page?
A: No, this will be automatically added, and the EMO tile will be visible to all Prison users from Tuesday 22nd July (2025), providing you have shared your NOMIS ID and email address details with the Electronic Monitoring change team by Thursday 17th July (2025).
If you have not done this, you will need to request access via your Local System Administrator from Tuesday 22nd July (2025).
When to use the new service
Q: When should I start to use the new service?
A: All Prisons will be onboarded to the service by Tuesday 22nd July (2025). You should use the new service from this date, if you haven’t already been onboarded.
Q: Is it essential to start using this service when I am busy with other workloads and initiatives? (e.g. FTR48)
A: Yes, it is essential to begin using the new service from your onboarding date (22nd July, 2025).
We appreciate that staff are busy, however the service has been designed to improve the experience of submitting forms and reduce the amount of time it takes for staff to complete. If there are any issues with using the service, support is available through the Microsoft Teams channel, as well as daily drop-in sessions from 1-1.30pm.
Q: I have a tagged release before I am onboarded to the EMO service. Should I wait for this service to come in and use the new system?
A: It depends on when you would usually raise the order. If it needs to be raised prior to you being onboarded, you can follow your existing process. However, if you are onboarded in advance of the release date, you can use the new service and raise that order.
Raising orders with certain monitoring requirements
Q: All the tag forms I complete are Alcohol Tag and Location/Curfew/Trail/Mandatory Attendance, so what should I do if the system doesn’t accept Alcohol Monitoring orders yet?
A: If the orders are a combination of Alcohol Monitoring (AM) and another form of monitoring (e.g. Alcohol Monitoring & Trail Monitoring), then please follow your old email process (submitting emails to LPAdmin@EMS.co.uk). However, if there are orders with other types of monitoring not including Alcohol Monitoring, you should use the EMO service.
Q: For this service, is a “Youth” classed as someone under the age of 18, or those from 18-21?
A: If a device wearer is being released on a youth sentence - e.g. if it is a Detention and Training Order (DTO) - then you would use the existing forms until CEMO is rolled out to Youth Custody Service.
Q. If the offender is being released on Home Detention Curfew (HDC) with Alcohol Monitoring, should I complete the HDC in the EMO Service and submit an AM order through the old email process, or submit everything through the old process?
A: No, for any orders with Alcohol Monitoring as a standalone requirement, or with an additional requirement such as AM with Curfew, you should continue to submit these types of orders over email to LPAdmin@EMS.co.uk. Any orders with any Alcohol Monitoring (AM) requirements still need to be submitted on existing forms, until AM monitoring is available on the EMO service. This will be communicated to you once AM is available (timings TBC).
Q. Alcohol Monitoring functionality: when will that be included?
A: Timings for this are still to be confirmed. You will be contacted by the Electronic Monitoring Business Change Team to be outline when this will be included in the service.
Q. Custody departments do not have even half of this information. The Community Offender Manager (COM) rarely provides a release address.
A: Probation may not be able to provide this until very near the release date. However, an address is required for EM orders to be processed, otherwise the order will be rejected. The only order which can be provided with a non-fixed address is an Alcohol Monitoring order, but that is not live in the new service yet and must be submitted using existing forms via LPAdmin@EMS.co.uk. For Acquisitive Crime cases, these also need to be supplied with an address and if there is No Fixed Address, they should be submitted by Probation using existing forms to LPAdmin@EMS.co.uk until instructed otherwise.
Q: If Probation are unable to provide an address before release and they want someone monitored, does it still lie with probation to complete this themselves after release?
A: With the exception of orders containing Alcohol Monitoring and Acquisitive Crime, eligibility for EM is that an address must be available at the point of release. If an order is raised without an address, it will be rejected.
If you have an Alcohol Monitoring order, you should continue to send these orders, including AM and an additional monitoring requirement such as Curfew, by email to LPAdmin@EMS.co.uk. For orders with Acquisitive Crime, an address is still required, so this should be raised by Probation if an address is unavailable.
Q: Will the information in the form be sent to local and Metropolitan Police? The current form and licence require it to be sent to them also.
A: The service does not have the ability to send on to external agencies, so it is the responsibility of the user to send to the Police and other responsible organisations if required. You can download a copy of the form after you have successfully submitted it on the service. You should email an attachment of this copy to Probation or other organisations who should have visibility, as you do now. DO NOT send a copy of the form to EMS/Serco as this will risk duplicated orders being raised.
Q: For HDC orders, if Probation need to change curfew hours or address information, who is responsible for changing the form as Prisons have no responsibility for the licence once the prisoner is released.
A: Probation is responsible. They will use the old email process until they are onboarded to the service (timings to be confirmed).
Q: A licence needs to be uploaded before submitting but 9 times out of 10, the licence is not approved until day before release, which will mean EMS are getting less than 48 hours’ notice.
A: EMS process the EM notification on receipt providing everything with the order is correct. Less than 48 hours notice will be fine for the order to be processed. The preference is to have as much information included within the order submission, including the updated licence.
Q. We often get requests from Probation with the condition “to be tagged once person has moved on from Approved Premises. As a Prison, we do not know at what point that has taken place so can I confirm that Probation would be responsible for that request at such a time its required?
A: We are unable to fully process without an address but standard process if for probation to submit the address. When Probation are onboarded to the new EMO Service, they will have the ability to amend orders raised by Prison, including adding or changing addresses.
Q: For a Foreign National Offender who transfers to an Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) at Conditional Release Date (CRD), how can this form be completed if we don’t know when they be granted bail and need the DAPOL monitoring to start? Do Home Office have access to this?
A: Home Office have not been onboarded to use the new service yet. The HOIE hub will continue to raise orders as they do now and will contact the Prison with the necessary details of any Home Office Immigration Bail details. Prisons do not raise these orders.
Q: We do not get contacted by any IRCs to say a prisoner is being released on licence after getting bail from there. For example, we could submit a form for DAPOL monitoring because the prisoner will be released from here and not an IRC. The prisoner is usually released 72 hours after being granted bail and sometimes even the Community Offender Manager (COM) is not told they have been granted bail until they turn up at the office. How can they submit a form if they don’t even know what licence conditions they have?
A: If released from Prison, but the Home Office feel it is necessary to hold the individual in an IRC, their licence condition wouldn’t be applied until they leave the IRC. If the individual is still in scope for EM for their licence condition, the Home Office should inform the Prison who will need to submit an EM Order request.
Q: Are we able to attach an exclusion zone map?
A: Yes, this can be done using the box and attachment for adding an exclusion zone monitoring requirement.
Q: Why isn’t the information automatically pulled through from DPS 2? With the changes function, can you only see the ones you have sent, or will it be prison caseload?
A: We will be introducing a function to search a submitted form and create change from the submitted form in the near future, which allows you to search any submitted form and automatically pull through previously entered data.
Q: Will future updates include information that has already been submitted, and is already on DPS, to be automatically included within the form, which would remove the requirement to complete every field in every section? All prisoner information and alerts are already on DPS / NOMIS.
A: This is something that is being explored, although it’s unlikely to be something that will be implemented in the near future. The team will communicate updates on this as and when we have them.
Q: As a high churn remand Prison, there can be upwards of 20 2-day checks to complete on top of the usual workload. With limited time, it is difficult to chase Community Offender Managers (COM) to provide all of this information every time. Does this responsibility sit with Probation if they have not given the required information needed to complete the online form by the 2-day check point?
A: It remains the responsibility of Probation to provide Prison staff with that information as they do now through various platforms (CVL, HDC Platform). However, eligibility for EM (except for Alcohol Monitoring) is that an address must be available at the point of release, and therefore you will need to work with Probation to gather detail.
Q: Does this service cover Scottish releases, or should I follow the old email process for this?
A: Serco do not provide the EM service in Scotland - please continue to submit these requests to the Scottish EM provider via the email address you already have.
Q: Would it be better for Community Offender Managers (COMs) to complete these forms and not the prisons?
A: There is no change to roles and responsibilities. Probation must provide you with the information and Prisons must complete the EM Order information.
Immigration and Bail orders
Q: Most of our Prison’s EMS tagging is from Immigration bail, the request for this is done via immigration and Taylor House through the Atlas system. Can you confirm this is still going to be the case once this system goes live and we will only be in scope to complete the probation license tagging and not all tagging requests?
A: Currently, EMO should only be used for licence cases. The service does not yet cater for Immigration cases, as this is being planned for roll out to Home Office staff later this year or early next year. Home Office staff should continue to submit Immigration orders as they do currently, until further notice.
Q: Will the service stop the submission of the order if you put forward an individual who is not in scope / eligible for that type of monitoring? Parole board releases for example, direct the tagging of an individual who is not eligible, resulting in the refusal of the order
A: No, the service will send on orders to be processed as it is agnostic of eligibility. However, Serco do check eligibility criteria for all orders, so if the device wearer doesn’t meet the criteria, this will be rejected. It is the responsibility of Prison staff to check on eligibility of the Prisoner for Electronic Monitoring before submitting orders.