Eastbourne and Willingdon MP Caroline Ansell is supporting a parliamentary bill to ban registered sex offenders from changing their names.
Caroline has put her name to a Ten-Minute Rule Bill campaigned for by her colleagues Mark Fletcher and Sarah Champion to close a legal loophole.
Presently, anybody can easily change their name, without reference to any criminal past. The onus is on the individual offender to keep the authorities up to date if they change any details.
Although there is a punishment of up to five years in jail for those who don’t notify the police of a change of details, a 2021 report by the Safeguarding Alliance found 16,000 offenders breached notification requirements in the past five years, and 905 sex offenders went missing between 2017 and 2020.
“I am very happy to put my name to this bill to highlight this loophole that the government must consider closing as soon as possible,” said Caroline.
“It cannot be right that sex offenders can simply reintegrate themselves into society, perhaps even vanish or take up positions looking after children just by changing their names.
“People need to have confidence it is impossible for this to happen. This bill will stop a name change for sex offenders so they can be more easily tracked to protect vulnerable people and children.
“I hope it will receive government support and become law.”
The bill will be presented to parliament on Wednesday.
Ten Minute Rule Bills are backbench private member's bills. They rarely become law due to a lack of parliamentary time but the mechanism is used to raise awareness of an issue and sometimes the government will decide to support it, increasing its chances of reaching the statute book.
