§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offenders are subject to sex offender orders; and how many sex offender orders have been granted in each year since 1999. [143388]
§ Paul GogginsSex Offenders Orders (SOOs) came into force on 1 December 1998 under the Crime and Disorder Act and were subsequently amended by the Police Reform Act 2002. There is no centrally held record of the number of offenders currently the subject of a SOO. However, a SOO has effect for a period not less than five years and can only be discharged before the end of this period with the consent of the police and the defendant. In addition, an individual may only be subject to one SOO at any one time. Therefore the number of SOOs granted by the courts may be used as an estimate to the number of offenders currently subject to such orders.
Since 2001, statistics on the number of SOOs have been collated under the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA). On 15 September this year, I made a Written Statement to the House announcing the publication of the 2002–03 MAPPA Annual Reports, copies of which I placed in the Library.
Statistics in MAPPA annual reports show that in the period 2002–03, 91 orders were granted. In the period 2001–02, 81 orders were granted.
Between 1 December 1998 and 31 March 2001, it is estimated that a total of 92 SOOs were made