§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many people in(a) 2000, (b) 2001 and (c) 2002 were proceeded against in the UK for outraging public decency where this was the principal offence; and how many of these were found to be guilty;[128637]
1251W(2) what the conviction rate was for persons proceeded against in the UK for outraging public decency where this was the principal offence, in each of the last five years.[128638]
§ Paul GogginsThe information requested, for England and Wales, is contained in the table.
Figures for Scotland are a matter for the Scottish Office and those for Northern Ireland for the Northern Ireland Office.
Statistics for 2002 will be published in December.
Number of persons1 proceeded against at magistrates' courts, found guilty at all courts and the conviction rate for the Common Law offence of "Outraging public decency", England and Wales 1997 and 2001 Year Proceeded against Found guilty Conviction rate2(percentage) 1997 47 13 28 1998 42 28 67 1999 86 26 30 20003 121 31 26 2001 164 34 21 1These data are on the principal offence basis.
2Persons found guilty at all courts as a percentage of persons proceeded against at magistrates' courts—as notified to the Home Office.
3Staffordshire Police were only able to submit sample data for persons proceeded against and convicted at magistrates' courts in 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robus enough at a detailed level and have been excluded from the table.
§ Linda PerhamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent representations he has received on the effectiveness of the Sex Offenders Registry.[127839]
§ Paul GogginsThe purpose of the notification requirements of Part 1 of the Sex Offenders Act 1997 (commonly known as the Sex Offenders' Register) is that the police know the names and addresses of the most serious sex offenders living in their area. This is one of a number of tools which enable them to protect the public more effectively.
We have received no specific representations on the effectiveness of the register. However, we receive a large number of letters on the Sex Offenders Act, which sometimes raise, among other issues, the effectiveness of the register as it applies in individual cases.
The most useful measure of effectiveness for the `register' itself is the level of compliance with the notification requirements. We estimate that nationally around 97 per cent. of offenders currently on the `register' are complying fully with the notification requirements.