HC Deb 26 January 2004 vol 417 cc236-8W
Mr. Djanogly

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) which steps are being taken to avoid offenders on the sexual offenders register(a) absconding and (b) changing their names without informing the police; [149680]

(2) how frequently offenders on the sexual offenders register who are resident in (a) Cambridgeshire and (b) Huntingdon receive visits by the Cambridgeshire Constabulary. [149683]

Paul Goggins

The requirement for sex offenders to notify the police of their name and address was introduced in the Sex Offenders Act 1997 and has proved an invaluable tool in helping the police to monitor convicted sex offenders within their area. An offender who is subject to the notification requirements must inform the police within 14 days of using a new name or moving to a new address. A failure to comply with the requirements is a criminal offence, with the maximum punishment set at five years imprisonment. We estimate that compliance with the requirements is currently around 97 per cent.

We are improving the notification requirements through the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Once the Act comes into force, relevant offenders will have to go to their local police station at least once every 12 months to confirm that the details held by the police are correct. They will also have to provide the police with their national insurance number and notify any change to their name or address within three days, rather than the current 14 days.

The Sexual Offences Act also includes a new power which will enable the information notified by registered sex offenders to be regularly checked against information held by the Department of Work and Pensions, the UK Passport Service and the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Agency. The purpose of this is to verify that the information notified by relevant offenders is correct and this will help to identify more quickly those cases where an offender assumes a new name or address without telling the police or where an offender absconds.

Sex offenders who are subject to the notification requirements will also:

  1. (a) continue to be visited by police officers as part of the routine management of sex offenders living in the community;
  2. (b) be subject to the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements which provide an increasingly effective way of enhancing public protection through better joint-agency working, including intelligence on where an offender is living and any other homes they may use;
  3. (c) have their details recorded on the new Violent and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR) database which will hold additional information and improve the sharing of intelligence between law enforcement agencies

Mr. Djanogly

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many offenders on the sexual offenders register resident in(a) Cambridgeshire and (b) Huntingdon are classed by the police to be low risk; [149682]

(2) how many sexual offenders resident in (a) Cambridgeshire and (b) Huntingdon were on the register for sexual offences on 1 January. [149684]

Paul Goggins

On 15 September 2003 I made a Written Statement to the House announcing the publication of the 2002–03 Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) Annual Reports, copies of which I placed in the Library of the House. Each of the 42 Areas of England and Wales publish a MAPPA Annual Report and this year's contain a more detailed breakdown of the number of sexual and violent offenders in each area and some of the outcomes of multi-agency public protection work. Cambridgeshire's

Fixed penalty and court proceedings data for speeding and traffic light offences detected by cameras1,2,3 1 in the Metropolitan Police District (including city of London), 1997–2001
Fixed Penalties Court Proceedings
Offence and year Number of tickets Estimated revenue (£) Number of fines Total amount of fine (£) Average fine (£)
Speeding offences2
1997 15,300 612,900 2,500 259,600 102
1998 14,200 566,200 2,900 356,800 125
1999 13,000 521,920 2,600 288,400 111
2000 44,100 1,910,700 2,200 256,700 115
2001 52,100 3,128,600 4,500 513,700 114
Traffic light offences3
1997 10,800 433,900 1,300 94,200 75
1998 9,700 386,700 1,200 95,500 78
1999 12,100 483,200 2,000 178,300 88

MAPPA report stated that there were 282 registered offenders in the area on 31 March 2003. Statistics are not available for each town in the county.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary has informed me that 42 per cent. of registered sex offenders in the county are classed as "low risk". In line with other police areas, the offenders classed as "very high risk" are visited at least once a month; those classed as "high risk", at least once every two months; those classed as "medium risk", at least once every six months and those classed as "low risk", at least once every 12 months.