sex offender

Violent and Sex Offender Register

In the United Kingdom, the Violent and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR) is a database of records of those required to register with the Police under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, those jailed for more than 12 months for violent offences, and unconvicted people thought to be at risk of offending. The Register can be accessed by the Police and some Probation Service personnel.

Notification Periods for offenders Sentenced under Sexual Offences Act 2003

Imprisonment for life, imprisonment for public protection or for more than 30 months or admission to hospital under restriction order, or subject to an Order for Lifelong Restriction: Notification Period: Indefinitely

Imprisonment for more than 6 but less than 30 months: Notification Period: 10 years

Imprisonment for 6 months or less, or admission to hospital without restriction order: Notification Period: 7 years

Caution: Notification Period: 2 years

Conditional discharge or (in Scotland) a probation order: Notification Period: Period of discharge or probation period

Any other: Notification Period: 5 years

Finite notification periods are halved if the person is under 18 when convicted or cautioned.

The requirement to register was originally imposed by the Sex Offenders Act 1997. The 1997 Act was amended by the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 to include the requirement to notify police of any foreign travel arrangements. The 1997 Act was repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which completely reimplemented the provisions of the 1997 Act.

The ViSOR database holds name and address records, photographs, risk assessment, offenders' modus operandi, and an audit trail. The Police National Computer is linked to ViSOR.

Sex offenders subject to the register must inform the Police within 3 days of becoming subject to the notification requirements, or within 3 days of various changes occurring , including moving home, changing their name, changes of passport details. Offenders must confirm their registration annually . Failure to comply is an offence, subject to a penalty of up to five years imprisonment.

Construction of the ViSOR application began in January 2003, with a first release of functionality to a pilot site November 2003. The system was subsequently rolled out to a further three pilot sites during early to mid 2004. National (UK) rollout began November 2004, and was completed April 2005. For a government IT project this appears to have been considered a relatively quick and successful development and deployment.

ViSOR is now in use across all 42 geographic police forces in the UK. Roll out to the Prison and Probation services of England and Wales was scheduled for 2006/7, but was considerably delayed and is underway but not complete as of mid-2008.

MEPs have shown some support for a European Sex Offender Database . However there are fears it will be many years, if ever, before it comes to fruition and even then it may not be effective. A recent NSPCC report highlighted the failure of EU countries to share criminal records properly and the fact that in their opinion this was leaving children at risk in the UK. .

However, though some individual MEPs position may be favourable, there is a number of European countries (Spain, Germany, Italy and France) that in the past have clearly stated that Sex Offenders' Registration as in the UK is a breach of the European Convention of Human Rights making it very unlikely to be implemented EU wide.