Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many registered sex offenders have no fixed accommodation.

Qualifying offenders (i.e., those convicted for an offence in Schedule 3 to the Sexual Offences Act 2003) are required to notify personal details to the police. This system is often referred to as the ‘sex offenders’ register’ and requires offenders to provide specified details annually and whenever those details change. Registered sex offenders with no fixed abode are required to notify their details every seven days.

The information provided to the police, and other relevant information, is stored on the ViSOR database which allows for the recording and sharing of information relevant to an offender’s risk between the police and other relevant agencies. The Ministry of Justice publishes annual statistics about (the multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA). The most recent statistics were published on 31 October and showed that on 31 March 2024, 70,052 sex offenders were managed under MAPPA. Those statistics relate to MAPPA as a system: the volumes of offenders managed at the three different risk levels, or the volumes of risk management tools (such as sexual harm prevention orders) made by a court in the reporting year. There are no plans to include information about offenders with no fixed abode in this publication.