Public urged to help monitor 'dangerous offenders'

Members of the public have been urged on to take an active role in the monitoring of sexual and dangerous offenders following their release back into the community.

The Home Office said that a campaign will be launched soon to recruit 84 "lay advisers" from communities to sit on the management boards that oversee the monitoring of serious offenders.

The Home Secretary David Blunkett proposed the involvement of lay people after the murder of Sarah Payne in July 2000. Today’s announcement follows pilots conducted in eight probation areas last year.

Home Office Minister Paul Goggins said today that the plan represented another "important step" in ensuring the best possible management of sexual offenders.

"Lay advisers will play a vital role in their local area. We are committed to giving them not only an insight into how this work is carried out but, more importantly, an opportunity to question what is being done and why," he said.

Terry Grange, the Association of Chief Police Officers lead on Child Protection, and Chief Constable of Dyfed Powys, said that lay advisers would offer a "community interest in public protection".

He added: "This gives a freshness of view, a disinterested opinion which can, as the pilots showed, provide a ‘reality check’.

"I believe that lay advisers offer a real opportunity to enhance public confidence in public protection work."

The advisers, who will not be paid, will be given training but will not be expected to become experts. Recruiters will be looking for people who are interested in community and social issues, with a track record of community involvement. All advisers will be cleared through the Criminal Records Bureau.

They will stay in the role for up to four years, and can serve two consecutive terms.

Recruitment of the lay advisers will be through advertisements in local media. This will start in May in the north-west and north-east and extend to Yorkshire and Humberside, Wales, the West and East Midlands from July.

From November, advisers will start to be recruited in the south-west, south-east, London and eastern England.

(gmcg)