Schedule 5: Amendments of the Sex Offenders Act 1997
179.Schedule 5 provides for a number of amendments to the Sex Offenders Act 1997 including:
a new requirement that a relevant offender must give his initial notification to the police in person; and
that he may be required, when doing so, to allow his fingerprints and photograph to be taken;
there is a power for the Secretary of State to make regulations to prescribe the police stations at which initial notification must be made;
a reduction in the period during which such offenders must initially register from 14 days to three;
a new power for the Secretary of State to make regulations concerning notification to the police of relevant offenders’ intention to leave the United Kingdom;
an increase in the maximum penalty for a breach of the Act’s requirements to 5 years imprisonment on indictment, a fine or both;
a new power for courts sentencing for more serious sexual offences to impose a restraining order, which may impose restrictions on offenders’ behaviour on their return to the community where this is necessary in order to protect the public from serious harm; and
a new power for the Secretary of State to make regulations to ensure that information about the notification requirement and the discharge or release of an offender liable for registration with the police is exchanged between relevant agencies .
