The sex offenders database is being opened up to public scrutiny, with the citizens of four counties being given access to the system in order to check up on named individuals working and living in the regions who have UNSUPERVISED contact with children.

'"You have to be a parent, carer or a guardian and you would go to the police or the authorities and say you have concern about somebody who had unsupervised direct access to your children," Home Office minister Vernon Coaker told BBC radio.

The trial does not extend to pro-actively identifying registered sex offenders living locally in the same way as the US 'Megan's Law' practice in the US.'

'It is a relief that the US approach has been rejected. We have seen the consequences when public hysteria about local paedophiles is whipped up by sections of the media, and it is not pretty.
It would have been grossly irresponsible for the Government to have done anything to facilitate mob violence.
The likelihood is that making the names and addresses of child sex offenders publicly available would have achieved precisely that.

So the remaining question is whether this British scheme has anything to recommend it?

It seems reasonable and proportionate that mothers with new partners, about whose pasts they are unsure, should be able to request basic background checks.

It is a sound principle that parents should have a right to any information that can help them directly protect their children'

- A more rational critical analysis from todays Independent


Det Supt John Raine, of Cambridgeshire police, said that the pilot scheme builds on existing Multi Agency Public Protection (MAPP) arrangements, under which information is disclosed to an individual or group where it is felt necessary.

Under current legilation, head teachers, doctors, youth leaders, sports club managers and others are notified on a confidential basis of the existence of a local sex offender.

Gary Swain, a former Cambridgeshire police officer working on the pilot, said the MAPP scheme had shown that parents behave responsibly when information is disclosed.