Sex offender disclosure scheme launched

Parents, carers and guardians were given new powers this week to check with police whether people given regular unsupervised access to their children have convictions for child sex offences.

The scheme is being trialled for one year in four police areas – Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Cleveland and Warwickshire – and if successful could be rolled out across England and Wales.

It will allow single mothers to ask police whether potential boyfriends have child sex convictions before they start a relationship. And family members or neighbours who regularly look after children could also be checked.

Police and probation services will have discretion on what information is revealed in each case and disclosure will be carefully controlled.

“These pilots should not be considered a ‘Sarah’s law’,” said Detective Inspector Damian Barratt, staff officer to Chief Constable Paul West who is the ACPO lead on the management of violent and sexual offenders.

“These disclosure pilots represent measured action following action identified in the Home Office’s Child Sex Offender Review in June 2007 whereby members of the public can register their child protection interests in a named individual.”

Where the individual has convictions for child sex offences and if considered a risk there will be a presumption that information will be disclosed to the relevant parent, carer or guardian.

“Although a third party such as a neighbour may instigate the process, if disclosure is made it will always be to the parent or guardian because we believe only they can usefully use that information,” added DI Barratt.

The pilots are very much an attempt to improve child protection and people’s ability to protect.

“It must be taken into account that 80 per cent of child sexual abuse is committed by a person known to the child,” said DI Barratt. “With that in mind, these pilots are very much about empowering the parents’ ability to protect their children.”

Despite the pilots representing a much less radical interpretation of ‘Megan’s law’ some individuals still believe the schemes could lead to vigilante attacks, and could drive offenders further underground.

“The real test of these pilots will be whether this information can be kept confidential to the parents or whether it spreads to other people, causing a risk of vigilante attacks,” said child protection charity the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

Diana Sutton, head of policy at the NSPCC, said time would tell whether the schemes kept children safer or merely created a “false sense of security”.

DI Barratt said the issue of disclosure is not new, with well managed and delivered disclosure policies “already in place” without incidents of vigilantism occurring.

“Robust systems such as MAPPA already consider whether disclosure about a person’s background in necessary whilst the safeguarding of children’s procedures also considers who needs to be made aware of any risk presented.”

DI Barratt added that the pilots have been designed around strict ways in which disclosure is delivered. “When it is relevant, MAPPA meetings will be informed when a disclosure request is made and whether information should be disclosed.”

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith hailed the pilots as a “huge step forward” in helping parents to protect their children.