Probation officers have ‘no power’ over sex offenders

SEX offenders cannot be properly supervised according to probation officers, who have claimed they don’t have any way of dealing with offenders who breach supervision conditions.

Union representatives say that while there are penalties for sex offenders who don’t comply with post-release supervision orders, probation workers don’t have legal powers to bring offenders back to court.

“There are concerns that if you have responsibility for supervising sex offenders you can’t effectively supervise people properly and fully unless you have a means of dealing with people who fail to comply with supervision,” said David Williamson of trade union Impact’s probation section.