Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the proportion of sex offenders who would benefit from medication to manage their sex drives; and what assessment they have made of the likely contribution to public safety of introducing a voluntary national programme to prescribe and manage such medication.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Services keeps Medication to Manage Sexual Arousal (MMSA) under review as part of its commitment to evidence-based approaches to reducing reoffending and protecting the public. This is a relatively new service whose effectiveness, both in outcome and cost, is still under review. We have not researched prevalence rates of the number of offenders who might benefit, but clinical opinion suggests it is approximately 5% of known sex offenders. There are currently no plans to expand services.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost-effectiveness of a voluntary national programme to prescribe and manage medication, including anti-androgens and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, for sex offenders who require assistance in managing their sex drives.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Services keeps Medication to Manage Sexual Arousal (MMSA) under review as part of its commitment to evidence-based approaches to reducing reoffending and protecting the public. This is a relatively new service whose effectiveness, both in outcome and cost, is still under review. We have not researched prevalence rates of the number of offenders who might benefit, but clinical opinion suggests it is approximately 5% of known sex offenders. There are currently no plans to expand services.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which evidence of the efficacy and cost effectiveness of polygraph testing of sex offenders is strong enough to support the roll out of a national programme to monitor sex offenders’ compliance with licence conditions and supervision designed to control or minimise the risk that such offenders pose to the community.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Sections 28 to 30 of The Offender Management Act 2007 (the 2007 Act) enable a polygraph licence condition to be added to the release licence of certain sex offenders. Initially, the condition was available in only eight Probation Trusts, by way of a pilot of mandatory polygraph testing. In July 2013, following research by Kent University it was agreed to make the condition available nationally.
Several criteria must be met for a sex offender to qualify for mandatory polygraph testing:
In limited circumstances, offenders who are not assessed as high or very high risk of reoffending may be required to undertake polygraph testing by way of licence condition. For this to be approved, there must be evidence of dynamic risk factors which indicate an increase in risk such that that risk may be mitigated by polygraph testing.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the proportion of sex offenders serving an indeterminate sentence for public protection whose suitability for parole would be enhanced by voluntarily undertaking a programme of medication to manage their sex drives.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
It is not possible to estimate the proportion of sexual offenders serving an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) whose suitability for parole might be enhanced if they were to take medication to manage their sex drives. This is because the impact that such medication might have varies considerably from individual to individual, having regard to their offending histories and interests, and because medication of this kind requires the offender’s consent.
In any event, the Medication to Manage Sexual Arousal (MMSA) service is currently offered only at seven prisons. Whilst Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Services keeps MMSA under continuous review as part of its commitment to evidence-based approaches to reducing reoffending and protecting the public, there are no plans currently to expand MMSA beyond those seven prisons.