In March 2023, we worked with BBC 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 Home 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.
Our research under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) was quoted in that debate on the day after publication – it received widespread coverage in the national and regional Press but few outlets quoted all the data cited during the debate
Six months after our report, Home Secretary Suella Braverman announced a plan to ban sex offenders from changing their name and gender, in her Conservative party conference speech in Manchester on 3 October 2023.
We provided data for each police force area in the UK, sourced through requests made under 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’s Prison & Probation Service, Her Majesty's Passport Office, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, Disclosure & Barring Service, Driver & Vehicle Agency, Disclosure Scotland, Access Northern Ireland, Home 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’ data you are using to understand any necessary caveats.
- 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 “stop list” or “browse”, had applied for new passports or to change their personal details
- Both the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency, which covers Great Britain, and Northern Ireland’s 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 “did not hold details of name changes made by deed poll or statutory declaration”. 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 “not manage a breakdown numbers of name changes by police force area, we simply enroll the change of name applications completed by the applicants…” and it did “however check for particular change of name for specific year when DPA request had been received”
We produced this story pack and this dataset.
- 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’s 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 Home Office spokesperson
The Shared Data Unit makes data journalism available to the wider news industry as part of the BBC Local News Partnership. Stories written by partners based on this research included:
- Birmingham World: Missing sex offenders: hundreds disappear from police radar across UK amid warning of name-change ‘loophole’ 5 March 2023
- Blackpool Gazette: The Lancashire sex offenders who have gone missing in the last year 4 March 2023
- Bury Free Press: Sex offenders living in Suffolk on the rise, new figures reveal 1 March 2023
- Cambrian News: Hiding in plain sight: Campaign to stop sex offenders changing their names 15 March 2023
- Carmarthenshire News Online: More than seven hundred sex offenders slip off police radar over three-year period 1 March 2023
- Hull Live: Hundreds of sex offenders have gone missing over three years 1 March 2023
- The Irish News: Hundreds of sex offenders went missing in three-year period 1 March 2023
- Lancashire Post: The Lancashire sex offenders who have gone missing in the last year 4 March 2023
- Manchester World: The Greater Manchester sex offenders who have gone missing in the last year 3 March 2023
- Newcastle World: More than seven hundred sex offenders slipped off the radar of police forces over a three-year period 5 March 2023
- Oakham Nub News: 2 of 700 missing sex offenders nationwide from Leicestershire policing areas 1 March 2023
- The News (Portsmouth): More than 700 sex offenders slip off police radar over three-year period 5 March 2023
- Rotherham Advertiser: Shocking scale of sex offenders who have slipped off police radar 1 March 2023
- The Shields Gazette: More than seven hundred sex offenders slipped off the radar of police forces over a three-year period 3 March 2023
- The Star (Sheffield): Revealed: Number of sex offenders missing from South Yorkshire as MP issues identity change warning 3 March 2023
- STV News (Glasgow and West): Hundreds of Scots sex offenders changed names and dozens disappear 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 BBC local radio throughout 1 March 2023.
BBC News's Midlands correspondent Phil Mackie delivered TV packages for BBC Breakfast and BBC News at 1pm, produced by BBC Shared Data Unit senior journalist Alex Homer, 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 BBC Radio 4, delivered voice pieces for Radio 5Live and Radio 2 news summaries and for BBC Sounds. BBC South Today covered the story on their 1830 programme featuring Lauren-Eden Sullivan's experience. The Jeremy Vine programme on BBC Radio 2 discussed the issue the following day.
Alex Homer carried out two-way interviews to discuss the report on BBC Three Counties Radio, BBC Radio Cumbria, BBC Radio Kent, BBC Radio Humberside, BBC Radio Shropshire and BBC Radio Derby.
Audio clips from our interviews were also carried in bulletins by BBC Radio London, BBC Radio Sheffield, BBC Radio Solent, BBC WM, BBC Radio Somerset, BBC Radio Newcastle and BBC Radio Ulster.
- Daily Mail: More than 700 sex offenders went missing or were wanted for arrest over a three-year period - with 1,500 changing their name after their conviction, figures show 1 March 2023
- Daily Mail (Scotland)(in print): 517 sex offenders allowed to change their names in 3 years 2 March 2023
- Daily Mirror: Loophole that allowed sex offender Rose West to change name 'must be closed', MPs told 1 March 2023
- Daily Record: Hundreds of sex offenders vanished in three year period across UK, shock figures show 1 March 2023
- Hugh James law firm's podcast: Hundreds of sex offenders missing in the UK 17 March 2023
- National World: Missing sex offenders: hundreds disappear from police radar across UK amid warning of name-change ‘loophole’ 2 March 2023
- parliamentlive.tv: Backbench Business: General debate on changes of name by registered sex offenders 2 March 2023
- Scottish Daily Express: Scotland left 'ripe for exploitation' as 517 sex offenders change their names in three years 1 March 2023
- Sky News: Bill proposed to stop sex offenders changing name 2 March 2023
- Stop It Now! confidential helpline website: Should registered sex offenders be allowed to change their names? 2 March 2023
- TalkTV: Hundreds of registered sex offenders have gone missing in three years, police figures show 1 March 2023
- Today's Family Lawyer: Police in the UK ‘missed hundreds of sex offenders’ 16 March 2023
- Wales Online: Hundreds of sex offenders have gone missing over three years 1 March 2023