§ Caroline FlintTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he will take to ensure that convicted child sex offenders, during their prison sentence, are not placed on community work programmes which bring them into direct contact with children. [5491]
§ Ms Joyce QuinProcedures are already in place to identify prisoners convicted of current or previous offences, including sexual offences, against children and young persons under the age of eighteen. In considering applications for release on temporary licence for work outside the establishment, both the nature of the work and the prisoner's offences are taken into account as part of a mandatory rigorous risk assessment process, which includes consultation with the police and probation services in serious cases. These arrangements are designed to prevent the temporary release of any prisoner considered to pose an undue risk to public safety.