Sexual Offences: Disclosure of Information
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on balancing public access to information on registered sex offenders with (a) data protection and (b) community safety.
Answered by Jess Phillips
Registered sex offenders (RSOs) are managed under the multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA). Under these arrangements, police, prison, probation service practitioners undertake a formal assessment of the risk posed by an RSO. Information about RSOs is held on ViSOR, the UK-wide database system used to store and share information and intelligence on those individuals managed under MAPPA.
The police have common law disclosure powers that allow them to share relevant information with the public when they think there is a credible risk of harm, such as through the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS) and the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme (CSODS). With regard to RSOs, the police must ensure that the disclosure of their conviction history is necessary to protect the person from being the victim of a crime, that there is a pressing need for the disclosure. Any decision to disclose under the scheme will be made based on the facts of each individual case, and the police can seek legal advice where necessary.
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