EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This note is not part of the Regulations)
The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (“the 2003 Act”) imposes notification requirements on offenders convicted of certain sexual offences. These offenders are called “relevant offenders”. The 2003 Act requires relevant offenders to notify certain personal information to the police, both at the outset and periodically thereafter. Section 87(1) of the 2003 Act provides that relevant offenders give such notification by attending at any police station in the relevant offender’s local police area which is prescribed in regulations. These Regulations prescribe those police stations in Northern Ireland.
For the purposes of section 87 of the 2003 Act, “local police area” is defined in section 88(3) of the 2003 Act. Section 88(3) of the 2003 Act applies as if Northern Ireland were a police area (section 88(5) of the 2003 Act). In their application to Northern Ireland references to police areas in Part 2 of the 2003 Act are to be read as references to Northern Ireland (section 136(3) of the 2003 Act).
These Regulations revoke and replace the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Prescribed Police Stations) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 (S.R. 2012 No.325) so as to provide an updated list of prescribed police stations which are available to relevant sex offenders in Northern Ireland, for notification purposes.
Specifically, the changes made to the list of prescribed police stations relate to : the removal of Carrickfergus police station from the list, as it no longer provides the required facilities to receive relevant offenders, and the refinement and updating of the addresses of the police stations located at Antrim Road; Bangor; Castlereagh; Coleraine; Grosvenor Road; Magherafelt; Newtownabbey and Strabane.