Registered Sex Offenders and Sexual Harm Prevention Orders (SHPOs)

Response

I am writing to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the period 29 June 2026 to 29 September 2026.

Following the commencement of the registered sex offender name-change provisions within the Crime and Policing Act 2026, please provide:

1. The number of registered sex offenders (RSOs) who notified the force of an intended change of name.

2. Of these: how many intended name changes were approved; and how many were refused.

   3. The number of RSOs identified as having failed to comply with the new name-change notification requirements.

   4. The number of investigations commenced into suspected breaches of these new name-change requirements.

 

Questions 1 – 4 are based on the premise that the provisions concerning notification of intended name changes by registered sex offenders were in force during the specified period.

 

Section 118 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, which inserts section 83A into the Sexual Offences Act 2003, has been enacted but had not been brought into force during the period specified in your request. Accordingly, those provisions had no legal effect during the period 29 June 2026 to 29 September 2026 and registered sex offenders were not required to notify the police of an intended change of name under those provisions.

 

Consequently, no information is held in relation to questions 1 to 4.

5. During the same period, the number of registered sex offenders identified as having breached a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), and, where recorded, how many of those breaches involved:  

• use of another name, alias or identity; or

• failure to disclose or notify a name or identity.

The ViSOR team initially identified 55 records relating to potential SHPO breaches within the specified period. Following review:

• 1 record was found to be a duplicate.

• 6 records were recorded as crime-related incidents only and no crime was recorded.

 

This resulted in a total of 48 SHPO breach offences being recorded.

 

Two separate breach offences were recorded in relation to four offenders. Therefore, the number of registered sex offenders identified as having breached a SHPO during the period was 44.

 

Having reviewed the records, none of the breaches were recorded as relating to:

• the use of another name, alias or identity; or

• the failure to disclose or notify a name or identity.

 

Information Requested	Number
SHPO breach offences recorded	48
Registered sex offenders identified as having breached a SHPO	44
Breaches involving use of another name, alias or identity	0
Breaches involving failure to disclose or notify a name or identity	0

 

Where a Sexual Harm Prevention Order is in force, the subject becomes subject to sex offender notification requirements. Those notification requirements include obligations relating to names used and changes of name. Consequently, the use of another name that has not been properly notified to the police would generally be dealt with as a breach of notification requirements rather than as a breach of a SHPO. This may explain why no SHPO breaches were identified within the categories specified in your request. It should also be noted that an individual may be subject to notification requirements even where no SHPO is in force.

 

6. As at 29 September 2026, the total number of RSOs subject to notification requirements within the force area. 
7. As at 29 September 2026, the number recorded as wanted, missing, of unknown whereabouts, or otherwise unable to be located.

 

The information requested in questions 6 and 7 is not held.

Registered sex offenders are managed on ViSOR, which is a live operational system. The system cannot be searched retrospectively to establish the number of individuals being managed on a specific historic date. Consequently, the force does not hold the requested information as at 29 September 2026.