John Reid on child sex offenders

Diana Johnson MP
Kingston upon Hull North
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
0207 219 5647 or 01482 319135






Our Ref: MB/HIRS01001/01061066

18 June 2007


Dear Mr Hirst,

I am writing to you with a copy of the Home Secretary’s recent statement on the publication of the report reviewing the protection of children from child sex offenders.

Given the concerns that you raised with me regarding the bail hostel on Queens Road I thought that you might find a copy of the statement useful. In relation to that specific hostel, I want to stress how seriously I take this matter and have continued to listen to the debate and to satisfy myself that we are doing everything can do about this bail hostel. I have also visited St. Vincent’s school and spoken with Head and Chair of Governors about their concerns.

Yours sincerely,





Diana Johnson MP


Home Secretary, John Reid’s House of Commons statement on publication of report of review of the protection of children from child sex offenders

13 June 2007

Check Against Delivery


Mr Speaker, with permission, I would like to make a statement regarding the Child Sex Offender Review.

There are few crimes more horrific than sexual offences against children. Ensuring that this most vulnerable group in society are safe is at the heart of the Government’s agenda and my role as Home Secretary.

The UK already has the strongest restrictions on child sex offenders. We have now considered how we can further improve the system to provide maximum protection to our children.

That is why, in June last year, I commissioned a comprehensive review of the management of child sex offenders. Over the last year, Home Office ministers and officials have consulted widely with stakeholders abroad and in the UK including all of the major children’s charities.
I would like to put on record my thanks to all those who contributed to the review, especially my Hon friend the member for Bradford South, who led the review, and Sara Payne for her support and understanding throughout.

The Home Office today publishes the report of that review. The report contains a number of actions that will make short, medium and long-term improvements in the way we manage child sex offenders.

The Review shows the multi-agency system we operate to manage high-risk offenders can work well, and that the professionals working on the front line to protect children deserve praise for the excellent work they do.

However, the Review has identified some areas where improvements can be made:

• Sharing more information with the public;

• Improving the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and the treatment of offenders; and

• Strengthening supervision and management of offenders, including through the use of technology.

Sharing Information
When I commissioned this review I started from the position that information should no longer remain the preserve of officialdom. Although, the police and other agencies can already disclose information about specific offenders to members of the public, local practice varies significantly and some areas do this far more than others.

I want to see much greater consistency between areas and a new presumption that where there is a potential risk, relevant members of public should and will be told.

We will therefore update the law to give police and other local agencies a duty to consider - in every case - whether a member of the public needs to know about an offender’s history in order to protect a child. And there will be a presumption that the authorities will disclose that information if they consider the offender presents a risk of serious harm to a member of the public’s children.

But I want to go further than this and give the public a more active role in this process. At present, information is only disclosed on a limited basis and usually with the consent of the Sex Offender, for example by agreeing to a Criminal Records check for employment with children.

However, we already know that 90% of child abuse occurs by those who are known to the child, such as a family member. Therefore we will target paedophiles who deliberately ingratiate themselves into families.

So, initially on a pilot basis, parents and guardians who are concerned about someone they have a relationship with, and who has unsupervised access to their children, will be able to register an interest with the police in that person. If that person has convictions for child sex offences, there will be a presumption that the police will disclose those offences to the parent if they consider the child to be at risk and if disclosure is necessary to manage that risk. This new system will initially be piloted in three police force areas from April 2008 backed by £2 million in new resources, and will be overseen by a national stakeholder advisory group. The Association of Chief Police Officers has written to every Chief Constable to inform them of the plans. The Ministry of Justice will also be writing to Chief Probation Officers.

In addition, we will be committing £150,000 to pilot a community-awareness campaign in partnership with the Stop It Now! charity. This will develop messages and deliver information to better equip parents and carers to safeguard children effectively.

Improving MAPPA and Treatment of Offenders
We will introduce national standards for all MAPPA areas, to improve the quality and consistency of decision making and to increase the capacity of MAPPA to manage dangerous offenders.

The Home Office and Ministry of Justice will provide an extra £1.2 million to MAPPA areas to:
• Underpin the standards and to promote public protection outcomes.
• Introduce a standardised set of rules of residence for approved premises housing offenders on probation.
• Introduce compulsory programmes of purposeful activity to occupy offenders’ time in approved premises, thereby increasing the amount of supervision they are subject to.

We will also work towards developing a more flexible approach to providing treatment, to maximise the number of offenders treated and the effectiveness of that treatment. This will include developing the use of drug treatments alongside existing psychological treatments.

For example, anti-androgen drugs and SSRI (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor) anti-depressants have been shown to be effective in reducing sexual drive and reducing offending. But this will need to be on a voluntary basis to prevent re-offending, because to succeed it relies on the co-operation of the offender.


Management and the use of Technology
We will improve the supervision and management of registered sex offenders by increasing the amount of information they must provide to police, such as:
• Their email and internet identities
• Their passport details
• When they begin a new relationship with single parents

The development of new technologies - such as the internet - has opened up new avenues of risk for children, and new opportunities for offenders. Our response must match these new risks, and we must ensure that we take the fullest advantage of technology to protect children:

• We will increase the use of the internet to publicise and track down high-risk offenders who have gone missing

• We will review the use of satellite tracking to monitor offenders on licence.

• We will pilot compulsory use of polygraph tests and this House has already agreed the necessary amendment to the NOMS Bill earlier this year.

Polygraphs, or lie-detectors, are routinely used by probation officers in the USA. Initial trials in this country on a voluntary basis showed that polygraph testing may be useful in the supervision and treatment of offenders, and in preventing further offending. We are now committing £800,000 for further trials and a scientific evaluation of compulsory polygraph testing, to determine whether it is an effective risk-management tool.


CONCLUSION
These actions will bring considerable improvements to the way we manage child sex offenders, and they will continue our agenda of refocusing the criminal justice system on the rights of the victims rather than the rights of the offender. Above all, they will further enhance the protection of children.




0607files\home office\gov prs\f13 JR child sex offenders statement.doc