Collapse in talks on £1bn GPS tagging scheme leaves small firms fuming

The promise of a revolution in supervising offenders with a new generation of tags that could track them 24 hours a day by the justice secretary, Chris Grayling, has suffered a setback with the collapse of talks this week with the small British hi-tech company that was to deliver the hardware at the centre of the scheme.The breakdown sparked a furious exchange between the justice ministry and Buddi, which is run by Sara Murray, a member of Vince Cable’s “entrepreneurs’ panel”, and chaired by the former Metropolitan police commissioner Lord Stevens. Buddi was given preferred-bidder status in August to provide the hardware for the £1bn GPS tagging scheme with the contract to be awarded by the end of last year.