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06/12/2005
Sex offenders ‘not properly supervised’
Some sex offenders living in the community are not being properly supervised, a report has warned.
The joint report, by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, criticised the monitoring of offenders across England and Wales as “poorly co-ordinated and inconsistent”.
The report examined five probation areas – in Norfolk, Gwent, Merseyside, West Yorkshire and Devon and Cornwall.
Lack of resources was cited as one reason why police surveillance of sex offenders was limited.
Police are required to make unannounced visits to sex offenders’ homes in order to check up on them, but the report found that the frequency of these calls was lower than planned.
The report also found that because officers had no legal right to enter offenders’ homes, a minority refused to allow them to come in.
Most of the recommendations made in a report published three years ago had also not been addressed, the report noted.
Terry Grange, sex offenders spokesperson from the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: "The Police Service is aware of the need to ensure that trained personnel are engaged in managing sex offenders. To that end, a manual of Public Protection is being completed and will be published in 2006. This document will be used as the basis of a training regime being prepared by the National Centre for Policing Excellence. We expect to have that training programme available in 2007 which will include training for supervisors."
Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland said: “We are committed to continuous development and improvement of the management of sex offenders.”
(KMcA/SP)
The joint report, by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, criticised the monitoring of offenders across England and Wales as “poorly co-ordinated and inconsistent”.
The report examined five probation areas – in Norfolk, Gwent, Merseyside, West Yorkshire and Devon and Cornwall.
Lack of resources was cited as one reason why police surveillance of sex offenders was limited.
Police are required to make unannounced visits to sex offenders’ homes in order to check up on them, but the report found that the frequency of these calls was lower than planned.
The report also found that because officers had no legal right to enter offenders’ homes, a minority refused to allow them to come in.
Most of the recommendations made in a report published three years ago had also not been addressed, the report noted.
Terry Grange, sex offenders spokesperson from the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: "The Police Service is aware of the need to ensure that trained personnel are engaged in managing sex offenders. To that end, a manual of Public Protection is being completed and will be published in 2006. This document will be used as the basis of a training regime being prepared by the National Centre for Policing Excellence. We expect to have that training programme available in 2007 which will include training for supervisors."
Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland said: “We are committed to continuous development and improvement of the management of sex offenders.”
(KMcA/SP)
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