Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the proportion of sex offenders who would benefit from medication to manage their sex drives; and what assessment they have made of the likely contribution to public safety of introducing a voluntary national programme to prescribe and manage such medication.

Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Services keeps Medication to Manage Sexual Arousal (MMSA) under review as part of its commitment to evidence-based approaches to reducing reoffending and protecting the public. This is a relatively new service whose effectiveness, both in outcome and cost, is still under review. We have not researched prevalence rates of the number of offenders who might benefit, but clinical opinion suggests it is approximately 5% of known sex offenders. There are currently no plans to expand services.