I am delighted to share that my campaign to prevent sexual offenders from changing their names, enabling them to avoid accountability and providing them the opportunity to commit additional crimes, is now formally included within the Criminal Justice Bill - now at Report Stage.
Currently sex offenders are able to change their name by deed poll, and in a bizarre loophole, the offender is the one responsible for notifying the authorities of the change. This renders both the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme (otherwise known as ‘Sarah’s Law’) and the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (otherwise known as ‘Claire’s Law’) redundant. Thanks to research carried out by the Safeguarding Alliance, it has become clear that thousands of offenders are being lost from the system, posing a risk to victims and the vulnerable.
The Bill gives the police greater powers to stop registered sex offenders from changing their name if they think they still pose a risk to their communities.
It is almost a year to the day that I introduced my 'Sexual Offences (Prohibition of Name Change) Bill' to the House of Commons to amend the law regarding sex offenders changing their names for safeguarding purposes. A constituent previously reached out to me for assistance in a challenging and deeply personal situation. Their story prompted me to investigate the issue of sex offenders evading justice by simply changing their names. I met with The Safeguarding Alliance and Della Wright, a survivor of child sexual abuse and ambassador for The Safeguarding Alliance, whose abuser changed his name multiple times, and have been campaigning, alongside them and Sarah Champion MP, and many others, for the law to be changed.
I am extremely proud that I have helped, in some small way, towards making #DellasLaw a reality.
Read more: https://www.gov.uk/.../tougher-laws-to-protect-children...
You can follow the passage of the bill https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3511#timeline
