§ Mr. DjanoglyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures are being explored to make sure that a sexual offender is identified correctly on making his first notification, with particular reference to progress has been made with his plans to use biometric technologies.[149681]
§ Paul GogginsUnder the Sex Offenders Act 1997 when an offender makes his initial notification, the police may take his photograph and/or his fingerprints to verify the identity of the person making the notification.
The Sexual Offences Act 2003, which re-enacts the 1997 Act with substantial amendments, will allow the police to take photographs of any part of an offender at any notification. This would include a notification by the offender of a change to his details and his annual 711W notification. The definition of photograph is wide enough to include the use of biometric technologies such as, in the future, iris scanning. The Violent and Sex Offenders Register (ViSOR), currently being developed by the Police and Information Technology Organisation, will have the capacity to store multiple images of individual offenders. These will include facial images and other images such as scars, marks and tattoos. ViSOR, coupled with the new powers in the 2003 Act, will significantly improve the ability of the police to establish the identity of offenders.
The Police and Information Technology Organisation is actively monitoring developments in biometric technology and are associated with a number of research projects focused on the identification of individuals for law enforcement purposes. The Home Office funded a study by the National Physical Laboratory on the use of iris, fingerprint and face biometrics in identity card schemes. The results of this study are on the Home Office website.
Currently, the verification of the identity of individuals against their criminal record is achieved using fingerprints via the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS). The replacement contract for NAFIS is currently under negotiation and it is anticipated that the system architecture will provide a flexible platform to allow other biometric capabilities to be integrated should they be required.