Professor Thom Brooks joined leading experts advising government on whether emerging technologies can help rehabilitate offenders in the community. Professor of Law, Ethics and Government and Principal of Collingwood College at Durham University, Brooks took part in a Government Office for Science roundtable on emerging technologies for offender rehabilitation. The summary notes were published on 29 October 2026.
The roundtable was chaired by Professor Dame Angela McLean, the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, and Hugh Stickland, the Ministry of Justice Chief Scientific Adviser. It brought together academics, industry and government experts to consider two questions: whether technologies such as electronic monitoring can achieve their intended behavioural effects in community-based sentences, and how the British public might react to them.
The notes conclude that government should decide what it wants criminal justice to achieve before choosing technologies to deliver it. Evidence on electronic monitoring and risk assessment tools is mixed and results depend heavily on context. Technology appears most promising when it supports the relationship between probation staff and offenders rather than replacing it. Success also depends on staff training and buy-in, on involving technology providers, and on systems that work with other data and services.
On public attitudes, the experts challenged the idea that the British public is overwhelmingly punitive. They found that people take more nuanced views of sentencing as they learn more about specific cases and decisions. They also noted that more research is needed on how the public, and judges, view technology-based supervision.
The roundtable drew on Professor Brooks's research on punishment, sentencing and public attitudes to justice. Other participants came from universities including Birmingham, Sydney, Portsmouth, Stirling, Strathclyde and Edinburgh, alongside the Sentencing Council, the Centre for Justice Innovation and TechUK. The publication is not a statement of government policy. It is intended as accessible science advice for policymakers.
Read the full publication on GOV.UK: Emerging technologies for offender rehabilitation
