Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many registered sex offenders have re-offended while in the community in each of the last 10 years.

The Ministry of Justice does not keep the figures requested and to obtain them would incur disproportionate cost. This is because not all offenders subject to the sexual offenders’ notification requirements (often know as registered sex offenders) are subject to statutory supervision by the National Probation Service.

However, published statistics are available for the period requested on proven re-offending rates of adult and juvenile offenders with an index sexual offence. These figures include those offenders released from custody and those who received a non-custodial conviction at court and then commit a further proven offence within a 12 month follow up period. It should be noted that a small number of these cases will not have met the criteria to be subject to the notification requirements.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/702786/proven-reoffending-apr16-jun16-annual.xlsx

Public protection is our highest priority. Not all sexual offenders who are made subject to the notification requirements serve a custodial sentence. Any sexual offender released from prison and subject to licensed supervision in the community who is caught breaching his licence conditions faces being immediately recalled to prison. A breach of the notification requirements is a criminal offence and punishable by up to 5 years’ imprisonment.