Sexual Offences: Reoffenders

(asked on 8th January 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many convicted sex offenders released from custody on licence have committed further sexual offences during the period that they are under licence in each of the last five years.


Answered by
 Portrait
Rory Stewart
This question was answered on 14th February 2019

Serious Further Offences (SFO) are rare. Fewer than 0.5% of offenders under statutory supervision are convicted of an SFO. Nonetheless, every single SFO is taken extremely seriously, and in all cases a review is carried out to identify any lessons for the better management of future cases.

The table below provides the number of convicted sex offenders released from custody on licence who were convicted between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2018 of a SFO sexual offence during the period that they were under licence.

Year

Number of sex offenders released on licence, who committed (convicted of) a sexual SFO, whilst subject to licence

2013-2014

10

2014-2015

14

2015-2016*

15

2016-2017*

25

2017-2018*

19

*Provisional figures subject to change as outstanding cases are concluded at court.

An SFO review is undertaken where an offender under statutory supervision in the community is charged with a qualifying offence – a “notification”. Not every offender charged with an SFO will eventually be convicted of an SFO.

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