Clause 91
Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill
6:45 pm
Vernon Coaker (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Gedling, Labour)
Amendments Nos. 213 to 216 provide the Secretary of State with the power to add to the notification requirements of violent offender orders by secondary legislation. The clause will require that all individuals subject to a violent offender order or an interim violent offender order are also subject to notification requirements. Additions to the existing notification requirements are currently made only by primary legislation, but the Government feel that the police and public would benefit from the greater flexibility offered by the measures.
The notification requirements imposed on sex offenders as introduced by the Sex Offenders Act 1997 have proved an effective method by which to manage the risks posed by sex offenders in the community. We have previously strengthened the requirements through the Sexual Offences Act 2003 by requiring sex offenders to register more information with the police and by shortening the time scales by which information must be provided. However, the protection of children from sex offenders review identified the benefits of requiring offenders to register more information, which could mean offenders providing more personal details and so on. To enable the requirements to be changed more easily, the review recommended that we should take a power to amend them by secondary legislation. That will enable us to respond more quickly to technological developments and new patterns of behaviour. Government new clause 40 will provide that power. The Association of Chief Police Officers expressed its support for the review’s commitment to the additional requirements.
Amendment No. 242 will allow the Secretary of State to make transitional arrangements when prescribing additional information that must be notified by sex offenders and to create different requirements for different types of offender. A power to allow the Secretary of State to amend the notification requirements of the 2003 Act by secondary legislation is provided by new clause 40 and Government amendment No. 242. It makes it clear that the amendment to the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which states explicitly that transitional provisions can be made through regulations, does not affect the validity of transitional provisions in regulations that have already been passed under the Act—for example, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Travel Notification Regulations) 2004.
Amendment No. 250 would repeal sections 86(4) and 87(6) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which allow regulations made under those sections—foreign travel notifications—to make different provisions for different categories of persons.