Prisoners' Release: Surveillance

(asked on 19th June 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what (a) electronic surveillance and (b) other supervision is available for people convicted of sexual offences against children on release.


Answered by
Robert Buckland Portrait
Robert Buckland
This question was answered on 26th June 2019

An adult offender who is sentenced to a custodial term for sexual offences against children will be subject to licensed supervision on release from custody. It falls to the National Probation Service (NPS) to supervise the offender upon release. The NPS will work with the Police and other agencies to manage the offender’s risk upon release, under the statutory Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA).

Where an offender is serving a life, indeterminate or extended determinate sentence for sexual offences against children and becomes eligible for release on parole, it falls to the Parole Board to set the licence conditions for the offender upon release. Since 30 November 2018 it has been open to the Parole Board to include a condition in relation to GPS monitoring in the offender’s licence, where it is necessary and proportionate to manage the risks and issues posed by the offender.

There are other licence conditions available to manage the risks presented by offenders convicted of sexual offences against children. These may include a ban from having contact with children, from entering certain areas, or carrying out certain types of work and a ban from contacting their victim(s). Furthermore, rehabilitative measures are available, including accredited programmes, drug treatment or mental health support. An offender manager has the power to recall an offender to prison, where the offender fails to comply with their licence conditions in a way which indicates heightened risk to the public. A full list of the available measures available on licence are listed in Annex A and B of Probation Instruction 09/2015 “Licence Conditions and Temporary Travel Aboard”. This is available online here:

https://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/offenders/probation-instructions/pi-09-2015-licence-conditions-and-temporary-travel-abroad.doc

In addition to the oversight of MAPPA, and to supplement licence conditions, an adult offender sentenced to imprisonment for sexual offences against children is subject to the sexual offenders’ notification requirements (commonly referred to as ‘being on the sex offenders register’). Thereby, the offender must notify the Police of various personal details, including: name(s), address, date of birth, passport and national insurance number. This takes place annually and whenever such details change. The offender may also expect to receive unscheduled visits from Police officers. The Police also have a range of legislative measures available to them in order to manage offenders both during and outside the licence period.

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