§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people are registered on the Sex Offenders List that have been found guilty of child abuse. [26609]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyUntil March 2001, data on the number of registered sex offenders were collated biannually on a national basis from the police national computer. However, this arrangement was overtaken by guidance issued by the Home Office in respect of the statutory provisions in section 67 of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000. The guidance requires information about the number of registered sex offenders in each police area to be published. This will take place from April 2002 and local systems are being put in place to deliver it. A collated report on the national situation should be available during the summer. However, until these systems are in place such information could be obtained only by a specific research exercise.
There is, in any case, no specific offence of child abuse as many sexual offences are capable of being committed against either adults or children. Indeed some sex offences against children are committed by children. The statistical information which will be required of Chief Officers of Police and Probation in relation to their work on Multi-Agency Public Protection Panels (MAPPPs) is one of the areas which are currently being developed.