In March 2023, we worked with 成人快手 News's Midlands & South Bureau to report hundreds of sex offenders across the UK had slipped off the radar of police in a three-year period.
Responses to Freedom of Information requests from 31 of the 45 police forces covering the UK, revealed 729 sex offenders had gone missing or were wanted for arrest from 2019-2021.
Abuse survivors had called on the government to introduce a new law to ban sex offenders changing their names.
The 成人快手 Office said it had "some of the toughest powers in the world to deal with sex offenders".
Calling the situation a scandal, MP Sarah Champion said the key reason so many offenders went missing was because they had changed their names.
When our report was published, MPs were due to discuss the issue the following day in a Backbench Business Debate in a House of Commons Chamber.
Methodology
We provided data for each police force area in the UK, sourced through requests made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI).
To gain the fullest picture we could as to the extent of this issue, the data was not only sourced from the 45 police forces covering the UK, but also through FOI requests to:
Crown Prosecution Service, Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service, The Public Prosecution Service, Scottish Prison Service, Northern Ireland Prison Service, Her Majesty鈥檚 Prison & Probation Service, Her Majesty's Passport Office, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, Disclosure & Barring Service, Driver & Vehicle Agency, Disclosure Scotland, Access Northern Ireland, 成人快手 Office and National Police Chiefs Council.
NB Notes on the data
Some of the police forces highlighted limitations in the data they could provide in their FOI responses and gave a snapshot of the figures on the dates of our original FOI requests from live systems. Please read the notes in each row for the forces鈥� data you are using to understand any necessary caveats.
What we found
- Hundreds of registered sex offenders (729) had either been recorded by police as having gone missing or were wanted for arrest in the previous three complete financial years - 31 of the 45 police forces covering the UK were able to provide those data
- At least 1,457 registered sex offenders had notified police forces of name changes/aliases in the previous three complete financial years - 21 of the 45 police forces covering the UK were able to provide those data
- The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) found 2,190 applicants for checks had criminal records and they had supplied incorrect or missed out personal details such as past names or aliases
- There had been 5,518 offences committed by registered sex offenders of failing to comply with notification requirements in the previous three complete financial years. Those offences could have included, but were not limited to: not notifying police of a name change/intention to travel abroad or within the UK/not notifying police of a change of address or circumstances such as beginning to live in a household with a child under the age of 18. 32 of the 45 police forces covering the UK were able to provide those data
- 6740 prosecutions had begun for offences by registered sex offenders of breaches of a sexual harm prevention order/interim order/foreign travel order in England and Wales in the same previous three complete financial years
- There were at least 66,139 registered sex offenders living in the UK, according to latest figures at that time, which 43 out of the 45 police forces were able to provide
- Prison services across the UK were unable to answer under FOI how many sex offenders had changed their name while in prison in the previous three complete financial years
- HM Passport Office could not answer under FOI how many times it had contacted individual police forces when any sex offenders on their watch list, also known as the 鈥渟top list鈥� or 鈥渂rowse鈥�, had applied for new passports or to change their personal details
- Both the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency, which covers Great Britain, and Northern Ireland鈥檚 Driver & Vehicle Agency would neither confirm nor deny they held data on how many times checks of new applications for driving licences had revealed the applicants had criminal records and had supplied incorrect or false details in the previous three complete financial years. They said to confirm or deny those data were held, might risk an increase in fraudulent or false applications
- National Records of Scotland said in its FOI response to us it 鈥渄id not hold details of name changes made by deed poll or statutory declaration鈥�. The General Register Office, which covers England and Wales, said it did not hold records of change of name, as did the National Archives. The Deed Poll Records team at the Royal Courts of Justice in London said it did 鈥渘ot manage a breakdown numbers of name changes by police force area, we simply enroll the change of name applications completed by the applicants鈥︹�� and it did 鈥渉owever check for particular change of name for specific year when DPA request had been received鈥�
Get the data
We produced and .
Interviews and quotes
- Della Wright (she/her) (pictured above), who waived her legal right to anonymity as a survivor of sex abuse. Campaigners were calling for a "Della's Law", named after her, to ban sex offenders changing their names once they were added to the register
- Lauren-Eden Sullivan (she/her), who also waived her legal right to anonymity as a survivor of sex abuse
- Sarah Champion (she/her), the Labour MP for Rotherham, who had raised the issue in Parliament that registered sex offenders (RSOs) were changing their names then applying for fresh identity documents
- Cumbria Constabulary鈥檚 Chief Constable Michelle Skeer (she/her), national police lead for the management of registered sex offenders
- Donald Findlater (he/him), Director at the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a UK-wide charity dedicated solely to preventing child sexual abuse
- Emily Konstantas (she/her), chief executive officer for campaign group The Safeguarding Alliance, whose research led to the scale of these name changes being reported in national newspapers in 2019
- Scottish Conservative shadow community safety minister Russell Findlay MSP (he/him), who had also called for legal changes in the Scottish Parliament to prevent RSOs changing their names
- A spokesperson for Nacro, a charity which provides a support service to people with criminal records
- A 成人快手 Office spokesperson
Partner usage
The Shared Data Unit makes data journalism available to the wider news industry as part of the 成人快手 Local News Partnership. Stories written by partners based on this research included:
- Birmingham World: 5 March 2023
- Blackpool Gazette: 4 March 2023
- Bury Free Press: 1 March 2023
- Cambrian News: 15 March 2023
- Carmarthenshire News Online: 1 March 2023
- Hull Live: 1 March 2023
- The Irish News: 1 March 2023
- Lancashire Post: 4 March 2023
- Manchester World: 3 March 2023
- Newcastle World: 5 March 2023
- Oakham Nub News: 1 March 2023
- The News (Portsmouth): 5 March 2023
- Rotherham Advertiser: 1 March 2023
- The Shields Gazette: 3 March 2023
- The Star (Sheffield): 3 March 2023
- STV News (Glasgow and West): 1 March 2023
The story was one of Apple News's top stories of the day and featured online and as a bulletin piece across 成人快手 local radio throughout 1 March 2023.
成人快手 News's Midlands correspondent Phil Mackie delivered TV packages for 成人快手 Breakfast and 成人快手 News at 1pm, produced by 成人快手 Shared Data Unit senior journalist Alex 成人快手r, which were also used by the News Channel followed by Donald Findlater appearing as a live guest. Phil Mackie also carried out a two-way interview to discuss the story on the Today programme on 成人快手 Radio 4, delivered voice pieces for Radio 5Live and Radio 2 news summaries and for 成人快手 Sounds. 成人快手 South Today covered the story on their 1830 programme featuring Lauren-Eden Sullivan's experience. The Jeremy Vine programme on 成人快手 Radio 2 discussed the issue the following day.
Alex 成人快手r carried out two-way interviews to discuss the report on 成人快手 Three Counties Radio, 成人快手 Radio Cumbria, 成人快手 Radio Kent, 成人快手 Radio Humberside, 成人快手 Radio Shropshire and 成人快手 Radio Derby.
Audio clips from our interviews were also carried in bulletins by 成人快手 Radio London, 成人快手 Radio Sheffield, 成人快手 Radio Solent, 成人快手 WM, 成人快手 Radio Somerset, 成人快手 Radio Newcastle and 成人快手 Radio Ulster.
Other usage
- Daily Mail: 1 March 2023
- Daily Mail (Scotland)(in print): 517 sex offenders allowed to change their names in 3 years 2 March 2023
- Daily Mirror: 1 March 2023
- Daily Record: 1 March 2023
- Hugh James law firm's podcast: 17 March 2023
- National World: 2 March 2023
- parliamentlive.tv: 2 March 2023
- Scottish Daily Express: 1 March 2023
- Sky News: 2 March 2023
- Stop It Now! confidential helpline website: 2 March 2023
- TalkTV: 1 March 2023
- Today's Family Lawyer: 16 March 2023
- Wales Online: 1 March 2023