Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 2013

Valid from 24/06/2014

Notification requirements: absence from notified residence N.I.

2—(1) Part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 is amended as follows.

(2) After section 85 insert—

“85A    Notification requirements: absence from notified residence

(1) This section applies to a relevant offender at any time if the last home address notified by him under section 83(1), 84(1) or 85(1) was an address in Northern Ireland such as is mentioned in section 83(7)(a) (sole or main residence).

(2) If the relevant offender intends to be absent from that home address for a period of more than 3 days (“the relevant period”), the relevant offender must, not less than 12 hours before leaving that home address, notify to the police the information set out in subsection (3).

(3) The information is—

(a) the date on which the relevant offender will leave that home address;

(b) such details as the relevant offender holds about—

(i) his travel arrangements during the relevant period;

(ii) his accommodation arrangements during that period;

(iii) his date of return to that home address.

(4) In this section—

• “travel arrangements” include, in particular, details of the means of transport to be used and the dates of travel,

• “accommodation arrangements” include, in particular, the address of any accommodation at which the relevant offender will spend the night during the relevant period and the nature of that accommodation.

(5) Where—

(a) a relevant offender has given a notification under subsection (2), and

(b) at any time before that mentioned in that subsection, the information notified becomes inaccurate or incomplete,

the relevant offender must give a further notification under subsection (2).

(6) Where a relevant offender—

(a) has notified a date of return to his home address, but

(b) returns to his home address on a date other than that notified,

the relevant offender must notify the date of his actual return to the police within 3 days of his actual return.

(7) Nothing in this section requires an offender to notify any information which falls to be notified in accordance with a requirement imposed by regulations under section 86.

(8) In calculating the relevant period for the purposes of this section there is to be disregarded—

(a) any period or periods which the relevant offender intends to spend at, or travelling directly to or from, an address of the kind mentioned in section 83(5)(g) notified to the police under section 83 or 85;

(b) any period or periods which the relevant offender intends to spend at, or travelling directly to or from, any premises, if his stay at those premises would give rise to a requirement to notify the address of those premises under section 84(1)(c).

(9) This section applies in relation to any relevant period which begins on or after the day after the coming into operation of section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 2013.”.

(3) In section 87(1) and (4) (method of notification) for “or 85(1)” substitute “ , 85(1) or 85A(2) or (6) ”.

(4) In section 91 (offences)—

(a) in subsection (1)(a) after “85(1)” insert “ , 85A(2) or (6) ”;

(b) in subsection (1)(b) for “or 85(1)” substitute “ , 85(1) or 85A(2) or (6) ”;

(c) in subsection (3) for “or 85(1)” substitute “ , 85(1) or 85A(2) or (6) ”.