On licence for a sex offence – January 2014

The Prison Reform Trust has produced a new leaflet. This is for people who are on licence for a conviction for a sex offence. The leaflet covers release on licence, the sex offenders’ register, police monitoring of sex offenders (MAPPA), SOPO (Sex Offences Prevention Orders) and when information can be disclosed about you.

If you have been released on licence it means you will serve the rest of your sentence in the community. Your licence says what you should do. You may be taken back to prison if you do not follow the rules. This may be because you offend again or break some other rules. This is also called breach of licence.

There will be some standard conditions for all released prisoners. They are to keep in touch with your probation officer and if required, to receive visits from them at your home or where you are living. You must also permanently live at an approved address and only take work as agreed by your probation officer. The other standard conditions are not to travel outside the UK and to be of good behaviour. There may be more conditions for people convicted of a sex offence. These can be restrictions on activities you can do or places you can go or people you can speak to.

The sex offender notification requirements sometimes known as the sex offenders’ register were introduced in 1997 to allow the police to keep track of sex offenders. Anyone convicted of a sexual offence is required to tell the police their details. If you do not do this, it is a criminal offence with a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison.

You must go in person to a police station and tell them your details within three days of leaving prison. When you leave prison you will be given a list of police station addresses near to you. The police should give you a copy of the form, which you should keep to show that you have registered.

If you are on the register indefinitely, you can apply to the police to have your name removed after 15 years on licence. The police will consider whether you still need to be on the register. They will consider the seriousness of the offence, the length of time since the offence was committed and your behaviour since then and any other evidence of risk of sexual harm.

from insidetime issue January 2014