Increase in number of registered sex offenders

There has been an increase of more than 3% in the number of registered sex offenders in England and Wales.

There are now almost 30,000 people on the sex offenders' register, according to the latest figures from the Home Office.

The number of violent offenders and other sex offenders under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (Mappa) has also increased by more than 13%, rising to 14,317.

Overall, there were 47,653 violent and sex offenders being monitored by Mappa in England and Wales at the end of 2005/06 - an increase of nearly 7% on the previous 12 months.

Of those, 12,505 were classed as Level 2 offenders with a 'high' or 'very high' risk of causing serious harm - an increase or 11%.

However, the number of Level 3 offenders - those subjected to the highest levels of supervision - dropped from 1,478 to 1,278.

Sixty-one Level 2 and 3 offenders were charged with a serious further offence, while 1,540 breached their license and 104 breached an order.

Commenting on Mappa, Gerry Sutcliffe, Under-Secretary of State for criminal justice and offender management, said: "The offences committed by the population of offenders covered by the multi-agency public protection arrangements, or Mappa, create intense suffering for victims and great concern for us all. Whilst we can never eliminate risk entirely, we are all entitled to expect that everything that can be done is being done to prevent these offenders from re-offending.

"This is the fifth year of Mappa across England and Wales and it is clear from the annual reports published today that a huge amount of skill and commitment is deployed towards protecting the public from serious sexual assaults and violent offenders and the agencies involved are more engaged than ever in tackling the harm caused by these offenders."

(KMcA/EF)