News In Focus
21 February 2007
Internet disclosure for missing sex offenders
Details of known sex offenders may be published on the internet if they abscond from their registered address, under Scottish Executive proposals on further measures to monitor sex offenders published yesterday.
The police and prosecution services would be given the power to decide to make the information available.
Launching the proposals, Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson declined to extend police powers to enter a registered sex offender's home without a warrant. The Scottish Parliament's Justice 2 Committee, whose report on additional measures, published last autumn, formed the basis of yesterday's announcement, had recommended powers of immediate entry where there were concerns for the safety of a child in the area. However Ms Jamieson appears to have accepted concerns that such a move would be excessive.
The Executive will instead work with police chiefs to ensure that officers are fully aware of their existing power to enter an offender's house without a warrant if they believe an offence is being or is about to be committed.
The Executive also proposes a form of targeted disclosure by publishing figures on the use of the formal police warning scheme currently being developed by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland. This scheme will support case-by-case disclosure of information about a sex offender's whereabouts and activities to relevant third parties if he/she continues to ignore police warnings about their behaviour.
Ms Jamieson said: "We will continue to act wherever we can to further minimise the risk posed by these often devious and manipulative individuals.
"We are now working with agencies in Scotland and the rest of the UK, to enable information about sex offenders who are refusing to co-operate with the authorities, or have absconded from their notified address, to be posted on the internet. This puts a further onus on the offender to abide by the terms of the scheme. If not, the police and Crown Office can take the necessary steps to warn local communities."
The SNP's justice spokesperson Kenny MacAskill, a member of the committee, said the proposals did not go far enough and that when children went missing in an area where sex offenders were known to live, the police should be able to search their homes without warrants. However Liberal Democrat Jeremy Purvis, who had opposed the additional powers, welcomed the announcement.