Hansard

I suspect that the amendments will not be contentious, but I ask for the committee's indulgence because I want to put a number of things on the record for future reference.Amendment 206 takes forward some of the suggestions that Professor Irving made in his report, "Registering the Risk". He believes that the effectiveness of the sex offenders register would be improved if the police could see registered sex offenders' passports and details of their financial affairs. He noted that the current requirement on sex offenders to furnish their name and address, date of birth and national insurance number is basic and inadequate. We agree. Part of the justification for the new requirement is that passports are useful to the police because they help to verify a person's identity. They can also be helpful in monitoring compliance with the regulations that we put in place in 2001, which require registered sex offenders to notify the police of their intention to travel abroad and to provide certain information about their trip. We are therefore amending the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to impose that requirement on them.If the police can see an individual's passport, they will know the person's name, date of birth and passport number, the issuing authority, and the dates of issue and expiry. They will also have a photograph of the individual, which might assist with the immediate identification of the individual and help the police to see any marked changes in the individual's appearance. If the offender loses or ceases to have a passport, they will be required to notify the police of the circumstances.Professor Irving also recommended that offenders should notify other personal details, such as leisure activities, main associates and telephone numbers. However, it was considered that, at this stage, it is difficult to justify a provision that sex offenders must provide the police with the further information that Professor Irving recommended.The second important measure is the creation of the power for the Scottish ministers to make regulations under the affirmative procedure to extend the information that sex offenders are required to provide to the police under the notification regime. The power will be used to implement Professor Irving's recommendation that bank account details and credit card information should be notified. Bank details were an important element in operation ore, which targeted individuals accessing and downloading images of child pornography on the internet. Accessing and downloading such material carries a cost and the transactions were often confirmed by gaining access to bank accounts. Also, bank account details are generally considered to be a reasonable proof of identity.Given the complex and detailed nature of those aspects of an individual's financial affairs, we think that it is more suitable to set out the provision in subordinate legislation. Accordingly, if amendment 206 is agreed to, we will move quickly to frame an appropriate set of regulations following royal assent. The regulation-making power will also allow Scottish ministers to extend the notification requirements to include other personal information. At present, there is no intention to add to the notification requirements in the 2003 act and the two recommendations from Professor Irving. In future, however, other information that sex offenders hold might help the police in the context of the general crime prevention purposes of the scheme.We have considered the ECHR issues around notification requirements carefully. The key issues are whether the additional requirements could be regarded as burdensome enough to amount to a penalty, and whether they would interfere with the right to private life in a way that could not be justified. We are satisfied that the provisions are ECHR compatible in those respects.Although the proposals will result in a greater burden being imposed on registered sex offenders, we do not think that the proposals are any different in principle from the current requirements—in particular, because of their relative lack of severity for registered sex offenders, and because they are directed at public protection and the prevention of reoffending. Passport information will be used to assist the police in verifying identity and monitoring compliance with travel notification. Bank account details will be of some material use to the police in preventing or detecting sexual offences.It is important to balance the relatively slight interference with the private life of the offender that these new requirements introduce against the gravity of the harm that can be caused to victims of a sexual offence. We consider that the provisions strike that balance.Amendment 207 amends section 96 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. It will enable regulations made under section 96 to set out what information a person responsible for a sex offender can notify to the police and other relevant persons about that offender, and that a photograph of the offender can be provided.Amendment 207 will help the police to identify sex offenders who have been transferred and released and will help them to enforce the notification requirements, and it should further ensure that sex offenders who are released into the community cannot evade the arrangements that have been introduced to protect the public.Amendment 208 will enable the police to apply for a warrant to enter and search an address that has been notified to them by a registered sex offender in Scotland. The amendment implements recommendation 19 of Professor Irving's report. It also goes some way towards implementing recommendation 48 of the expert panel on sex offending chaired by Lady Cosgrove.The police currently carry out risk assessments on registered sex offenders to ascertain how likely it is that they will reoffend. The police endeavour to carry out those assessments in the home of the offenders in order to observe their surroundings. There is no statutory obligation on the offenders to comply with a request to carry out such a risk assessment. Although the compliance rate is high—and we acknowledge that—the police continue to be frustrated by a small, hard-core group of offenders who adopt an obstructive attitude and refuse to co-operate. This frustrates the risk assessment process and impedes the proper monitoring and supervision of those offenders.Both the Irving and the Cosgrove reports have emphasised the value of visiting sex offenders at home to gather information for conducting a risk assessment. The reports said that the inability to do so was an impediment to the proper monitoring, assessment and supervision of offenders.Amendment 208 does not give the police carte blanche to enter and search the premises of every registered sex offender in Scotland. An integral part of the powers is that the police will have to apply to a sheriff for a warrant to enter such premises. Before a warrant is granted, the police will have to satisfy the sheriff that it will assist the risk assessment process for them to gain entry and conduct a search of the house of an offender for the purpose of conducting a risk assessment.The police will also have to confirm to the sheriff that they have tried on more than one occasion to gain entry to the relevant premises with the co-operation of the registered sex offender in order to carry out a risk assessment, but have not been able to do so.We have considered the ECHR issues around giving the police the powers to enter and search the homes of registered sex offenders. Any power to enter and search the home of a registered sex offender raises issues of interference with privacy. However, we consider that the provisions are justified as they have the purpose of preventing crime and protecting the public by identifying the risks that an offender may pose. The police will be able to exercise the powers only if a court considers that they are necessary and justified for the purpose of carrying out a risk assessment.The provisions are proportionate to the aims that they seek to achieve. A court will grant a warrant only if it is satisfied that the police have exhausted other methods of conducting a risk assessment, and that they have made attempts to gain entry to and search the premises for this purpose.Amendment 231 makes a consequential amendment to the bill. It makes it clear that references to "the 2003 Act" mean the Sexual Offences Act 2003.I move amendment 206.