The Sex Offenders (Notice Requirements) (Foreign Travel) (Scotland) Regulations 2001

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations extend to Scotland. The Sex Offenders Act 1997 specifies in Part I that certain sex offenders are subject to requirements to notify certain personal details to the police. The Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 amended the Sex Offenders Act 1997 (“the Act”) to provide for such offenders to be subject to additional requirements to give notices where they propose to leave, and return to, the United Kingdom. These Regulations impose such requirements.

Regulation 4 requires a relevant sex offender to give a notice under section 2(6E) of the Act to the police at least 24 hours before he or she leaves the United Kingdom. The Act specifies that the notice must disclose the date of departure from the United Kingdom, the country to which the sex offender will travel (or, if there is more than one, the first country), and the point of arrival in that country. A person’s “point of arrival” in any country is to be determined in accordance with regulation 3.

Regulation 5 provides that the section 2(6E) notice must additionally disclose the following information in relation to the sex offender’s intended travels, where that information is held at least 48 hours prior to his or her intended departure: the intended point of arrival in each country that he or she intends to travel to; any carriers that he or she intends to travel from one country to another with; details of his or her accommodation arrangements for his or her first night outside the United Kingdom; the date of intended return to the United Kingdom; and the point of arrival on return to the United Kingdom.

Regulation 6 provides that where a section 2(6E) notice has already been given, but at any time up until 48 hours prior to the sex offender’s intended departure, the information disclosed in that notice becomes out of date, then a fresh notice under section 2(6E) must be given no later than 24 hours prior to his or her intended departure.

Regulations 7 and 8 require the sex offender to give a notice pursuant to section 2(6F) of the Act within eight days of his or her return to the United Kingdom, disclosing his or her date of return and point of arrival in the United Kingdom, unless that information has previously been notified.

Regulation 9 sets out the general rule that to give a notice the sex offender must attend in person at a police station in his or her local police area at which, pursuant to the provisions of section 2(5) of the Act, notifications under section 2(1) of the Act may from time to time be made. The exception to this rule is in the case of a fresh notice under section 2(6E) and regulation 6, which must be given at a police station at which, pursuant to the provisions of section 2(5) of the Act, notifications under section 2(1) of the Act may from time to time be made, but that need not be in the sex offender’s local police area. Provision is made in paragraphs 2 and 3 of Schedule 5 to the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 to amend section 2(5) of the Act. “Local police area” is defined in section 2(7) of the Act.

Regulation 9 also provides that a sex offender giving a notice under section 2(6E) or 2(6F) must inform the person to whom he or she gives the notice of his or her name and his or her home address, as they are currently notified under section 2(1) or (2) of the Act; and where he or she is giving a fresh notice under section 2(6E) and regulation 6, he or she must inform the person to whom he or she gives the notice of the police station at which he or she first gave a relevant notice under section 2(6E).

In terms of section 3(1B) of the Act (as inserted by paragraph 5 of Schedule 5 to the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000), where a sex offender without reasonable excuse fails to give a notice in accordance with the Regulations or gives a notice which does not disclose the required information or which discloses information which he or she knows to be false, he or she will be guilty of an offence and be liable in the case of conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for up to five years, or a fine, or both and in the case of summary conviction, to imprisonment for up to six months, or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or both.