This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Expert group to tackle young sex offenders
12/12/2005
A team of experts will be appointed to develop national guidance to tighten the monitoring and supervising of young sex offenders.
The group will work with national agencies and local service providers to develop new measures to improve the identification, risk assessment, and planning for young sex offenders, particularly those who may be most at risk of becoming serious offenders in later life. This will lead to a draft national strategy for young sex offenders by Spring 2006.
Today's move follows an independent review of Fife Constabulary and Fife Council's report on Colyn Evans, requested by Scottish Ministers in June, and published today by the Social Work Inspection Agency (SWIA) and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC).
In response to that report, Ministers also today confirmed today that:
- During the past two weeks SWIA, in conjunction with the Care Commission and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education have carried out a joint inspection of Geilsland School, following concerns raised about the quality of provision for Evans during his time there. This inspection examined whether the current level of care and programmes being delivered are sufficient to ensure the safety of residents and that the right action is being taken to address their behaviour. Ministers expect to receive that report shortly
- Two joint groups, already undertaking work relevant to this case, have been asked to take the inspector's findings into account before presenting their recommendations to Ministers early next year. This includes work by the Youth Justice Improvement Group on effective integration of the youth and adult justice systems, in particular the transfer of information between the two. And to prepare advice and guidance on local Child Death and Significant Incident Reviews, to ensure these are as comprehensive as possible
Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson said:
"Sex offences are horrendous crimes. That is why we have taken action to tighten up the operation of the sex offenders' registration scheme, placed new legislative requirements on the police, local authorities and others to establish joint arrangements for managing the risk posed by sexual and violent offenders, and rolled out the Violent and Sex Offender database to enable all forces to share intelligence on these individuals and those suspected of being a risk.
"However, this tragic case has highlighted where further work is urgently needed on the management and supervision of young sex offenders. This is an extremely complex area but one we must address. After all, it matters little to the victims of sexual crimes how old their attacker was. It is much more important how well the authorities took steps to prevent such incidents and reduce the likelihood of future attacks.
"We will appoint a team of professionals with expertise in adolescent sex offending to work urgently to produce a strategy which will ensure swift, effective action is taken at an early stage to deal with these young people.
"We also expect to receive a report in March on work by the Youth Justice Improvement Group, on effective integration of services and transfer of information between the youth and adult justice systems. I expect it to take full account of issues raised by inspectors, to help ensure young offenders are not allowed to fall between gaps in those systems and everything possible is done to prevent young people from spiralling into serious offending that impacts on the lives of innocent people, as well as their own."
Peter Peacock, Minister for Education, Young People and Social Care, said:
"Ministers appointed inspectors to review the Fife case because we wanted to ensure that all aspects of this case were covered in detail and that, where necessary, steps were put in place to address any outstanding issues. That work has raised wider concerns about the quality of provision at Geilsland School which is now being taken forward through a joint inspection at the school.
"It has also highlighted the importance of ensuring that organisations that may need to undertake Child Deaths and Significant Reviews have appropriate guidance to ensure these are conducted as thoroughly and robustly as possible. Work on that is well underway. However, the group undertaking it has now been expanded to ensure it includes Justice Department representatives, and that guidance is available to any agencies required to undertake similar internal reviews as Fife Council and Fife Constabulary."
Colyn Evans was sentenced to life imprisonment June 10, 2005 for the murder of Karen Dewar. On the same day, Fife Constabulary and Fife Council published a joint report on the case. Following concerns about what that covered, Ministers asked HMIC and SWIA to review the management of that case, by working together to:
- scrutinise the report of the management arrangements of Colyn Evans
- identify issues not fully covered in the report or which required further examination, and then
- work with the Fife agencies to address any issues, and update the June report to reflect that
Ministers also agreed to meet the council leader, council chief executive, and chief constable to discuss the outcome of this work. That meeting took place last week.
The inspectors' report concluded that while it would have been impossible to predict that Evans' behaviour would escalate to murder, there were 'considerable shortcomings' in the Fife Police and Fife Council's handling of this case. Inspectors have also outlined a series of local and national issues that must be addressed to increase protection to the public, from young sex offenders.
Consideration is currently being given as to who will be appointed to the expert team on young sex offenders. The team will also be responsible for:
- creating measures to improve the identification, risk assessment, planning for and management of young sex offenders
- creating specialist programmes to address offending, in both community and residential settings
- ensuring those working with young sex offenders have sufficient expertise
- ensuring young sex offenders continue to be appropriately supervised as they move from youth into the adult justice system, and that appropriate information is transferred with them
- ensuring all services for this group are supported by robust quality assurance systems
Today's measures build on a range of work to improve the management of sex offenders. That includes:
- Commissioning an independent review of the operation of the sex offenders' registration scheme. Professor George Irving's findings and Executive subsequent proposals to tighten the scheme were published in October 2005
- Enabling chief constables to apply for a Risk of Sexual Harm Order to restrict the activities of individuals suspected of being a danger to someone under 16 - even if they have not been convicted of an offence
- Rolling out ViSOR to all forces, enabling them to record information on sexual and violent offenders, and those suspected of being a risk, making it easier to share intelligence on them and their activities
- Provisions in the Management of Offenders etc (Scotland) Act 2005 to Parliament to require local authorities, the police and others to establish joint arrangements for assessing and managing the risk posed by sex offenders.
- Creating a new national concordat to improve the way local agencies work together and share information on sex offenders
- Working with ACPOS to create a common policy on the recording of non-registered sex offenders on ViSOR and how best to manage non-registered sex offenders on a consistent basis across Scotland
- Working towards a national strategy and updated guidance for all housing providers on the housing of sex offenders, due for completion around March 2006