To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he expects to (a) receive and (b) publish the report of the audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers into the electronic monitoring contracts held by G4S and Serco in England and Wales.

The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, my right hon. Friend Chris Grayling, received a preliminary audit report from PricewaterhouseCoopers in July, which informed his statement to the House on this subject on 11 July 2013, Hansard, columns 573-575. Auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers are now in the process of auditing every other contract the Department holds with G4S and Serco. It would not be appropriate to publish audit reports at this stage, in order to avoid prejudicing any subsequent investigations. The Secretary of State will however continue to keep Parliament informed.