What is the sex offenders register and how can I find out if someone has a record?
PARENTS are allowed to find out if a child sex-offender is living in their area after the abduction and murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne.
But what is the sex offenders register – and exactly how do you find out if someone has a record?
What is the sex offenders register?
The sex offenders register contains the details of anyone convicted, cautioned or released from prison for a sexual offence since September 1997, when it was set up.
All convicted sex offenders must register with the police, in person, within three days of their conviction, or release from prison. They must continue this registration on an annual basis.
They must give their name, date of birth, home address and national insurance number.
Anyone getting a jail term of 30 months to life is subject to an indefinite term of registration.
There were 88,106 police recorded sexual offences in the year ending March 2015, an increase of 37 per cent compared with the previous year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Within the overall increase, the number of offences of rape increased by 41 per cent to 29,234 offences, and the number of other sexual offences increased by 35 per cent to 58,872 offences, the ONS said.
A report from the Ministry of Justice showed that in 2016-2017 the number of people on the register had risen 82 per cent from 30,416 in 2006-2007 to 55,236.
According to a Good Morning Britain investigation, in the last six years (up to 2018) 1,230 sex offenders, put on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely, have succeeded in getting themselves removed from the register.
How do I find out if someone is a sex offender?
The child sex offender disclosure scheme – known as Sarah’s Law - allows parents, carers and guardians to formally ask the police to tell them if someone has a record for child sexual offences.
Started in 2008, the child sex offender disclosure scheme was developed in consultation with Sara Payne, Sarah's mother, along with the police, and children’s charities.
The simple deed poll process takes 15 minutes online and over 1,300 sex offenders have already done it since committing their offences and have informed authorities.
Campaigners are warning that while it is an offence for people on the sex offenders register to change their names without telling officials, that's not incentive enough for them not to do it - as it's easy to do and common practice.