Sexual Offences Act 2003

Baroness Featherstone Excerpts

Tuesday 14th June 2011 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Lynne Featherstone)]

The Home Office is today introducing a proposal for a draft remedial order, The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Remedial) Order 2011, to rectify the legislative incompatibility identified by the Supreme Court in the case of R (on the application of F and Angus Aubrey Thompson) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] UKSC 17. In this case, the Supreme Court made a declaration of incompatibility under section 4 of the Human Rights Act 1998 in respect of notification requirements for an indefinite period under section 82(1) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. We are also launching today a targeted eight-week consultation on four key proposals to strengthen the existing notification requirements for sex offenders and further enhance our ability to manage registered sex offenders in the community: “Reforming the Notification Requirements of Registered Sex Offenders (Part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003): A Targeted Consultation”.

The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Remedial) Order 2011 will give offenders a right to seek a review of their indefinite notification requirements once they have completed a fixed period of time subject to those requirements (15 years from the point of first notification following release from custody for adults and 8 years for juveniles). The review will be carried out by the police and will take into account a range of factors, including any information provided from agencies which operate within the multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) framework. It is our view that these measures provide a proportionate response to the Supreme Court ruling, ensuring that there is a robust and individual assessment of risk before an offender is considered for removal from the notification requirements. Sex offenders who continue to pose a risk will remain on the register and will do so for life, if necessary.

Protecting the public is a priority and to this end, the Home Office continues to engage with public protection agencies to ensure that the risk posed to the public by sexual offenders is managed effectively. The consultation launched today by the Home Office seeks views on four key proposals for widening the type of notification requirements which can be imposed on sex offenders. These proposals include requiring an offender, subject to the notification requirements under section 82 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, to: notify the police of all foreign travel (including travel outside of the UK of less than three days); notify weekly where they are registered as having “no fixed abode” (i.e. where a registered sex offender has no sole or main residence and instead must notify the police of the place where he can regularly be found); notify where they are living in a household with a child under the age of 18; notify passport, bank account and credit card details and to provide identification at each notification to tighten the rules so that sex offenders can no longer seek to avoid being on the register when they change their name (including by deed poll). Following the outcome of the consultation, the Home Office will seek to implement these amendments by December 2011.

The final impact assessment for these proposals can be found on the Home Office website.