Hansard

Thank you, convener.The order was made and laid before Parliament on 27 January, and it came into force on 28 January. It is an urgent order, as provided for under sections 12 and 14 of the Convention Rights (Compliance) (Scotland) Act 2001. As such, it came into force upon laying. I am here to ask the Scottish Parliament to approve it to ensure that it can remain in force.I will give some background and context. On 25 October 2010, I made the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Remedial) (Scotland) Order 2010 (SSI 2010/370). Again, that order had immediate effect. The 2010 order was the first of its kind in Scotland. It was introduced, as a matter of urgency, to address a United Kingdom Supreme Court judgment that ruled that requiring sex offenders to register indefinitely on the sex offenders register without the opportunity for review was incompatible with the European convention on human rights.The 2001 act procedures provide that, upon making the remedial order, the Scottish ministers must give appropriate public notice of the contents of the order and invite comments, which are to be made in writing within a period of 60 days. That consultation period ended on 23 December 2010. Members should have before them a copy of the consultation report that we published on 8 February, which provides a summary of the comments that were received, together with details of the resulting changes that we have made to the original 2010 order, which are incorporated into the 2011 order.Members should know that public safety has been our absolute priority. In recent years, we have improved the safeguards that have been in place—for example, we have improved the risk assessment of sex offenders and rolled out the successful community disclosure scheme. Our focus must be on enabling the police to manage offenders who pose a continuing risk of sexual harm. Accordingly, the review mechanism that is contained in the remedial order provides a number of significant safeguards and conditions. Those who receive a sentence of 30 months or more will still be put on the sex offenders register for life, and therefore indefinite registration for serious sex offenders will continue.In reviewing the extent to which the value of the notification system would be eroded by the introduction of such review procedures, the Supreme Court noted:“it is open to the legislature to impose an appropriately high threshold for review”.The order sets an appropriately high bar. Adult offenders will have to be on the sex offenders register for 15 years before they are considered for review. For young offenders, the period will be eight years. That will not include time spent in prison for the index offence. No offender will be automatically removed from the register when the review date is reached. The police will carry out a robust assessment of every offender who reaches the review date, and will take into account a comprehensive range of information, including any risk assessments that have been carried out as part of the multi-agency public protection arrangements, or MAPPA, process. A senior police officer will decide whether the offender should remain on the register, and offenders who pose a continuing risk of sexual harm to the public will remain on it. When offenders are kept on the register, the police or, on appeal, the court will set a timescale of up to 15 years for a further review. The offender will be able to appeal the police decision to a sheriff, and the sheriff’s decision to grant or refuse an appeal can be appealed to the sheriff principal, whose decision will be final.Members will no doubt have picked up on the fact that the UK Government also has to comply with the Supreme Court ruling. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, said that he was “appalled” by the ruling. I share his distaste for the measures, but regardless of how objectionable I feel they are, the Scotland Act 1998 places a specific duty on the Scottish ministers and the Scottish Parliament to act in accordance with convention rights. Therefore, I have been compelled to bring forward the order for members’ consideration in order to ensure that our legislation no longer contravenes the ECHR.The UK Government has followed our lead in opting for the 15-year and eight-year review periods and entrusting the decision to the police. The review process sits alongside a range of other measures that we have taken to strengthen the management of sex offenders in our communities. For example, registered sex offenders are already required to provide details of their bank accounts, credit cards and passports, and we will shortly be able to require sex offenders to comply with positive obligations as part of any sexual offences prevention order.I believe that Scotland’s review mechanism, which the police support, will ensure that public protection is the foremost consideration in meeting the requirements that ECHR places on us. We will continue to monitor all aspects of the remedial order and, if necessary, we will bring forward further measures to improve its operation. In that regard, we have also built in powers to amend the 15-year and eight-year review periods that are set out in the order. Such a flexible power is sensible because it will allow us to calibrate the review mechanism to recognise developments in policy, practice and evidence-based knowledge and understanding.I am sure that committee members will have questions and I am happy to answer them.