Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many registered sex offenders who are UK nationals made requests for consular assistance following their arrest for child sex offences between 2013 and 2017.

​Whilst we do not hold data on the registration of sex offenders in the UK, from 2013 to 2017 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)responded to 361 requests for consular assistance from UK nationals who had been arrested for child sex offences overseas. The FCO is not notified of the arrest of all UK nationals overseas. The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963 (Article 36) provides for an Embassy to be informed of an arrest only if the individual requests it.