Sex offenders will be banned from exploiting a loophole that allows them to change their names under plans announced by the home secretary.
Suella Braverman confirmed the government would bring forward legislation that will stop registered sex offenders from changing their identities, while also strengthening background checks to catch them if they do.
“I don’t care if anyone thinks this is interfering with their human rights,” she told the conference hall.
“It’s time to worry less about the rights of sexual predators and more about the rights of victims.”
The plans come following campaigning from the Safeguarding Alliance – whom she thanked in her speech – for the government to implement Della’s Law, named after Della Wright who was raped when she was six years old by a man who had changed his name five times.
Sky News has highlighted how sex offenders are currently able to exploit a loophole that allows them to change their name via deed poll.
The simple deed poll process takes 15 minutes online and allows convicted sex offenders to assume a new identity despite being put on the Sex Offenders Register.
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Sex offenders face a five-year prison sentence if they do not inform the police of their change of name. Over 1,300 sex offenders have already used the system since committing their offences and have informed authorities.
Sky News revealed in March that thousands of sex offenders are changing their details without notifying police by exploiting the loophole, which campaigners have argued makes a “mockery of the legal system”.
Between January 2019 and June 2022, there were almost 12,000 prosecutions made against people on the sex offence register who have failed to tell authorities about a change in their personal information, such as name and location, despite a legal requirement to do so.
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The figures – obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOI) Request by The Safeguarding Alliance and shared exclusively with Sky News – are “just the tip of the iceberg in this epidemic” and do not reflect those who have not been caught, campaigners said at the time.
In 2020, Sky News reported that more than than 900 sex offenders had disappeared off police radar, with many thought to have disguised their identities by changing their names and not telling officers.
The home secretary’s announcement was welcomed by Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham, who has long campaigned on the issue.
Ms Champion had put forward an amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill that is making its way through parliament.
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Elsewhere in her speech, the home secretary railed against the Labour Party, whom she accused of being relaxed on immigration.
“People with luxury beliefs will flock to Labour at the next election because that’s the way to get the kind of society they want,” she said.
“They like open borders. The migrants coming in won’t be taking their jobs. In fact, they are more likely to have them mowing their lawns or cleaning their homes.”
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She took particular aim at the Human Rights Act, saying she was surprised it was not called the “Criminal Rights Act”.
“[The public] know another thing – that the future could bring millions more migrants to these shores, uncontrolled and unmanageable unless the government they elect next year acts decisively to stop that happening,” she said.
Talking about “illegal immigration”, she said: “Our country has become enmeshed in a dense net of international rules that were designed for another era. And it is Labour that turbocharged their impact by passing the misnamed Human Rights Act.
“I’m surprised they didn’t call it the ‘Criminal Rights Act’.”
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Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Ms Braverman’s speech was “devoid of practical policies and divorced from the reality of Tory failure over the last 13 years”.
“She had nothing to say about the knife crime killing our children, the epidemic of town centre crime undermining our communities or the collapse in prosecutions under the Tories which means more criminals are getting off.
“Nor did she mention the 1,000 people who have arrived on small boats since Tory conference started, all because she has totally lost control of border security.
“The country deserves a home secretary who cares more about tackling the problems facing the country than launching a Tory leadership bid.”
