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. Persons subject to a Violent Offences Prevention Order (VOPO) provided for in the Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 2015 or a Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Order (STPO), provided for in the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Criminal Justice and Support for Victims) Act (Northern Ireland) 2015, are also required to notify in the same way as a relevant offender of the 2003 Act. Provision for the STPO commenced on 1 April 2016, but provision for the VOPO is yet to commence.
Section 87(1) of the 2003 Act provides that relevant offenders of the 2003 Act and those subject to a VOPO or STPO 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) 2015 (S.R.2015 No.345) so as to provide an updated list of prescribed police stations which are available in Northern Ireland, for notification purposes.
Specifically, the changes made to the list of prescribed police stations relate to: the removal of Castlereagh and Grosvenor Road police stations from the list, as they are no longer accessible to the public, and a change of address in relation to Downpatrick police station.