Initial Guidance…
…TO THE POLICE AND PROBATION SERVICES ON SECTIONS 67&68
OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND COURT SERVICES ACT 2000
INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND
1. This guidance is issued 2.
by the Secretary of State
and underpins the duty
under the Criminal
Justice and Court
Services Act 2000 to
make joint arrangements
for the assessment and
management of the risks
posed by sexual, violent
and other offenders who
may cause serious harm
to the public. This duty
commences on 1 April
2001.
PURPOSE
In recent years police and probation
services have paid increasing attention
3.
to their role in protecting the public
from sexual and violent offenders.
Much work to develop this role has
already taken place. All areas of
England and Wales now have some
inter-agency arrangements in place to
assess and manage risks posed by sex
offenders; and in most areas these
arrangements cover violent offenders
also. Many of these arrangements
began when the Sex Offenders Act
1997 was implemented; others
predated that Act. In most areas police
and probation have jointly taken the
lead and in many areas have been
successful in negotiating the
involvement of other agencies in the
arrangements, notably Social Services,
Health, and Local Authority Housing
Departments. Since the Sex Offender
4.
Act, the government has introduced a
number of further public protection
measures. The Crime Sentences Act
1997 introduced mandatory life
sentences for second time serious sex
and violent offenders. The Crime and
Disorder Act 1998 introduced
Extended Sentences for sexual and
violent offenders, and the Sex
Offender Order. In December 2000,
proposals for the management of
dangerous offenders with severe
personality disorder were published in
the White Paper “Reforming the
Mental Health Act”.
The Criminal Justice and Court
Services Act 2000, sections 67 and 68,
seeks to increase public protection by
building upon the existing inter-
agency arrangements. It introduces a
statutory duty on police and probation
to make joint arrangements for the
assessment and management of the
risks posed by sexual and violent
offenders, and other offenders who
may cause serious harm to the public.
The purposes of the new arrangements
are to consolidate and develop existing
work and to promote best practice and
consistency across England and Wales.
There is also a requirement to produce
an annual report on the work carried
out under the arrangements.
Ministers’ intention is that effective
and consistent public protection
arrangements will exist in every police
and probation area, following national
guidance, but implemented locally to
best suit local conditions and local
needs. In addition to police and
probation there are a number of
statutory and voluntary agencies that
have an important role to play in
effective public protection. The
National Probation Directorate will be
working up a comprehensive strategy
on the management of the risks posed
by dangerous offenders. This will
require the active participation of not
just the police but all the other
agencies involved. Our aim will be to
achieve agreement across these
agencies so as to put in place
arrangements that will better protect
the public.
Initial Guidance
GUIDANCE
5. Work under the new statutory duty
will develop and strengthen over time
as the arrangements become
established and bed in. This initial
guidance is intended to assist with the
immediate work necessary to enable
police and probation to meet the
requirement. During the course of the
first year, work to produce more
comprehensive guidance for the longer
term will take place. This will involve a
number of government departments
and a wide ranging consultation
exercise with all interested statutory
and voluntary agencies nationally. The
Youth Justice Board will, at the same
time, draw up guidance specifically for
young offenders. In the meantime local
multi-agency arrangements made for
the highest risk offenders must
facilitate referral of young offenders as
well as adults.
THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE
AND COURT SERVICES ACT
2000
6. Section 67 of the Act requires the
responsible authority in each area to
establish arrangements to assess and
manage the risks posed by relevant
offenders, to keep those arrangements
under review, and to publish an annual
report on the arrangements made. The
responsible authority for each area is
the Chief Officer of Police and the
Local Probation Board acting jointly.
7. Section 68 defines relevant offenders as
sexual and violent offenders and others
who have committed offences and who
may cause serious harm to the public.
8. The full text of the relevant sections
of the Act is provided at Appendix A.
2
Minimum Requirements
9. As a first step towards consistent
practice there will be minimum
requirements for the
arrangements made by Police and
Probation, for the first year.
Whilst the more comprehensive
guidance to follow will assist in
securing the involvement of other
agencies and clarifying their roles,
Police and Probation in the first
year must seek to negotiate the
involvement of Social Services,
Health and Local Authority
Housing.
Minimum requirements for the first year
must:
a) Establish Strategic Management
Arrangements for reviewing and
monitoring the effectiveness of the
arrangements made and for revising
them as necessary or expedient.
The Strategic Management
Arrangements must ensure the
minimum requirements stated in the
guidance are established. Specifically,
the Act states that “ The responsible
authority for each area must keep
the arrangements established by it
under review with a view to
monitoring their effectiveness and
making any changes to them that
appear necessary or expedient.” Each
area must therefore establish
strategic management arrangements
at senior management level to fulfil
that requirement.
Information gathered during
monitoring will be used to inform
local practice and to evaluate the
effectiveness of the arrangements.
Those with responsibility for the
strategic management
arrangements will need this
information for later publication in
the annual report
b) Establish and agree systems and
processes for sharing information
and for inter-agency working on all
the relevant offenders.
The local arrangements made are
based first and foremost on
information sharing between
agencies. Information needs to be
shared on all the relevant offenders
to enable risk assessments to be
made and to be re-assessed if
necessary over time. In many cases
the sharing of information to
inform the risk assessment will be
the only inter-agency action
required, with the risk management
action taken as a result of the
assessment resting with one agency
alone. For example, there will be
cases where the supervision
provided by the probation service is
sufficient to manage the assessed
risk or where supervision has ended
and the only active agency is the
police. In other cases multi-agency
action to manage the risk may be
necessary from the outset, for
example, where a sex offender on
licence to the probation service
may be monitored as a registered
sex offender by the police, be
receiving out patient treatment
from health services and be
accommodated within Local
Authority housing provision.

c) Establish and agree systems and
processes to ensure that only those
critical few that require that
additional consideration are referred
to a Multi-Agency Public Protection
Panel (MAPPP).
In many cases, the sharing of
information and general arrangements
for inter-agency working will be
sufficient to mange the risks posed by
the offender. It is only those critical
few cases which require additional
action or resources, that should be
referred to a MAPPP. The underlying
principle should be that referral to the
MAPPP will be limited to those cases
in which the high risk of harm to the
public can only be effectively
managed on an inter-agency basis. The
local arrangements must therefore
determine criteria for referral to the
MAPPP.
We intend, as the strategy develops, to
agree firmer definitions for levels of
risk and the appropriate arrangements
for handling in these. In the
meantime, cases fitting any of the
following criteria must be considered
for referral to a MAPPP:
● Imminence of serious harm
● May require unusual resource
allocation.
● Serious community concerns.
● Media implications.
● Need to involve other agencies not
usually involved.
This does not preclude arrangements
being made locally for agencies to
hold other inter-agency meetings,
below the level of the MAPPP.
d) Establish and agree systems and
processes for a Multi-Agency Public
Protection Panel (MAPPP) for the
highest risk cases, including young
offenders.
It is important for consistency that
the multi-agency meeting
arrangements made for the highest
risk offenders in each area must be
referred to as Multi-Agency Public
Protection Panels (MAPPP). Agencies
attending MAPPPs will at a minimum
be police and probation services, but
may - and often should - also
include Social Services, Health, Local
Authority Housing departments and
other statutory and voluntary
agencies locally determined. The role
of the MAPPP at a minimum is to:
● Share information on those
offenders referred to it.
● Decide upon the level of risk posed
by the offender.
● Recommend the action necessary
to manage the risk including any
contingencies.
● Monitor and ensure
implementation of the agreed
action.
● Review the level of risk and the
action plan in the light of changes
in circumstances or behaviour.
● Consider and manage necessary
resources.
Initial Guidance
● Consider need for community
disclosure and other community
issues.
● Agree a media strategy where
appropriate.
e) Consider resource allocation and
multi-agency training.
Senior managers will need to
consider the resource implications
of this work for all the agencies
involved. Multi-agency training has
already been carried out in many
areas and may be beneficial in
encouraging agencies to become
involved.
f) Community and media
communications.
Ministers intend that there will be
regular communication between
the police, probation service and
other relevant agencies and the
communities they serve about the
steps being taken to protect them
from sexual and violent offenders.
3
Initial Guidance

Minimum Requirements (continued)

g) Agree the Annual Report and ● The following items of statistical

statistics.
The annual report should be a clear
and accessible document that
informs and reassures the public
about the work taking place for their
protection. For the first year, the
report must contain:
● A summary of the roles and
responsibilities of police, probation
and any other agency locally
involved in the arrangements. This
must include the results of efforts
made to engage other agencies
like Social Services, Health and
Local Authority Housing.
● An outline of the arrangements
made for the protection of the
public, starting with the day to day
work of the agencies involved and
moving on through to the more
specific arrangements for the
highest risk offenders.
information along with a brief
explanation of their significance:
i. The number of registered sex
offenders on 31 March each year.
ii. The number of sex offenders
having a registration requirement
who were either cautioned or
convicted for breaches of the
requirement, between 1 April and
31 March.
iii. The number of Sex Offender
Orders applied for and gained
between 1 April and 31 March.
iv. The number of offenders
considered under the
arrangements prescribed by
Sections 67 and 68 of the Act.
v. The cost of the local
arrangements, to include initial
set up costs and staff hours.

● A description of the strategic

management arrangements to The report should also contain local contact
demonstrate that the work is points that the public may use to relay any
subject to monitoring and concerns they may have or to obtain
evaluation. information or support.

● A description of the way that

disclosure has been used to assist
public protection, including any
relevant examples.

● An outline of the work being done

to ensure that victims are
informed about the progress of the
offender as outlined in Section 69
of the Criminal Justice and Court
Services Act.

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 Appendix A
Appendix A
CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND COURT SERVICES ACT 2000

Part III
Chapter II
Sexual or Violent Offenders

Sections 67 and 68

Arrangements for assessing etc. risks posed by certain offenders.

67. - (1) In this section-
“relevant sexual or violent offender” has the meaning given by section 68, and
“responsible authority”, in relation to any area, means the chief officer of police and the local
probation board for that area acting jointly.

(2) The responsible authority for each area must establish arrangements for the purpose of assessing
and managing the risks posed in that area by-
(a) relevant sexual or violent offenders, and
(b) other persons who, by reason of offences committed by them (wherever committed), are
considered by the responsible authority to be persons who may cause serious harm to the
public.

(3) The responsible authority for each area must keep the arrangements established by it under review
with a view to monitoring their effectiveness and making any changes to them that appear
necessary or expedient.

(4) As soon as practicable after the end of the period of 12 months beginning with the coming into
force of this section and each subsequent period of 12 months, the responsible authority for each
area must-
(a) prepare a report on the discharge by it during that period of the functions conferred by
this section, and
(b) publish the report in that area.

5
Appendix A

(5) The report must include-

(a) details of the arrangements established by the responsible authority, and
(b) information of such descriptions as the Secretary of State has notified to the responsible
authority that he wishes to be included in the report.

6) The Secretary of State may issue guidance to responsible authorities on the discharge of the
functions conferred by this section.

Section 67: interpretation.

68. - (1) For the purposes of section 67, a person is a relevant sexual or violent offender if he falls within
one or more of subsections (2) to (5).

(2) A person falls within this subsection if he is subject to the notification requirements of Part I of
the Sex Offenders Act 1997.

(3) A person falls within this subsection if-

(a) he is convicted by a court in England or Wales of a sexual or violent offence (within the
meaning of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000), and
(b) one of the following sentences is imposed on him in respect of the conviction-
(i) a sentence of imprisonment for a term of 12 months or more,
(ii) a sentence of detention in a young offender institution for a term of 12 months or more,
(iii) a sentence of detention during Her Majesty’s pleasure,
(iv) a sentence of detention for a period of 12 months or more under section 91 of the
Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (offenders under 18 convicted of certain
serious offences),
(v) a detention and training order for a term of 12 months or more, or
(vi) a hospital or guardianship order within the meaning of the Mental Health Act 1983.

(4) A person falls within this subsection if-

(a) he is found not guilty by a court in England or Wales of a sexual or violent offence (within
the meaning of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000) by reason of insanity
or to be under a disability and to have done the act charged against him in respect of such
an offence, and
(b) one of the following orders is made in respect of the act charged against him as the offence-
(i) an order that he be admitted to hospital, or
(ii) a guardianship order within the meaning of the Mental Health Act 1983.

(5) A person falls within this subsection if the first condition set out in section 28(2) or 29(2) or the
second condition set out in section 28(3) or 29(3) is satisfied in his case.

(6) In this section “court” does not include a court-martial or the Courts-Martial Appeal Court.
6
 Appendix B
Appendix B
DEFINITIONS
SERIOUS HARM
Harm which is life threatening or traumatic
and from which recovery, whether physical or
psychological, can be expected to be difficult
or impossible.

MAPPP
A multi-agency meeting established locally to
consider those offenders who present the
highest risks. Police and Probation as a
minimum will attend, although other
agencies may attend as necessary.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
ARRANGEMENTS
Senior Officers representing all the agencies
involved in the arrangements established
under the Act. Key responsibilities include the
review and monitoring of the arrangements
as a whole.

7
Point of contact

Point of contact
This guidance has been produced in by the Home Office in conjunction with the
Association of Chief Police Officers, the Association of Chief Probation Officers, Her
Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.
Further advice can be obtained from:

Carol Kellas
Dangerous Offenders Unit,
National Probation Directorate
Home Office,
Horseferry House,
Dean Ryle Street,
London.

Tel: 020 7217 0744

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