HC Deb 08 May 2002 vol 385 cc232-3W
Mr. Cox

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many(a) men and (b) women are on the sex offenders register. [53867]

Beverley Hughes

The Sex Offenders Act 1997 requires offenders cautioned for, convicted of, or found not guilty by reason of insanity of an offence specified in schedule 1 to the Act to provide certain details to the police. There is, however, no "register" of sex offenders, as such; nor are sex offenders subject to the requirements of the Act separately identified as such in criminal statistics.

Until recently, data on the number of sex offenders subject to the requirements of the Act were collated biannually on a national basis from the police national computer. However, this arrangement has been overtaken following guidance issued by the Home Office in respect of the provisions in section 67 of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000. The guidance requires information about the number of sex offenders subject to the Act's requirements in each police area to be published on an annual basis starting in 2002 and local systems are being put in place to deliver this. Until these systems are in place information on the number of sex offenders subject to the Act's requirements could be obtained only by a specific exercise by the particular police force concerned. We have no plans to break down published figures further.

Mr. Wilshire

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many(a) men and (b) women who are on the Sex Offenders Register reside in (i) Spelthorne and (ii) Surrey. [54326]

Beverley Hughes

[holding answer 7 May 2002]: The Sex Offenders Act 1997 requires offenders cautioned for, convicted of, or found not guilty by reason of insanity of an offence specified in schedule 1 to the Act to provide certain details to the police. There is, however, no "register" of sex offenders, as such; nor are sex offenders subject to the requirements of the Act separately identified as such in criminal statistics.

Until recently, data on the number of sex offenders subject to the requirements of the Act were collated biannually on a national basis from the police national computer. However, this arrangement has been overtaken following guidance issued by the Home Office in respect of the provisions in section 67 of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000. The guidance requires information about the number of sex offenders subject to the Act's requirements in each police area to be published on an annual basis starting in 2002 and local systems are being put in place to deliver this. We have no plans to require publication by constituency or to break down published figures further. Until these systems are in place information on the number of sex offenders subject to the Act's requirements could be obtained only by a specific exercise by a particular police force concerned.

Mr. Grieve

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many sex offender orders have been made to date in each police force area in England and Wales; how many have been(a) discharged and (b) breached; and if he will make a statement. [51828]

Beverley Hughes

We have been informed of 96 sex offender orders made by the courts between 1 December 1998, when the provisions were implemented, and 31 December 2001. Figures by police force area are not available for the entire period.

We have been informed of three successful breach prosecutions during 1999 and 21 during 2000, the most recent period for which published data are available. We have a provisional figure of 28 further prosecutions for the first three quarters of 2001. These data are not available broken down by area. Information on discharges of sex offender orders is not routinely collected.