October 23, 2006: Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements Work

Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) are a proven way to identify and manage violent and sexual offenders, according to Gerry Sutcliffe, Under-Secretary of State for criminal justice and offender management.

This is the fifth year in which annual reports by the 42 Responsible Areas in England and Wales have been published. They highlight the work undertaken through MAPPA to protect communities from the risk posed by dangerous offenders. Nearly 48,000 offenders in England and Wales fell within MAPPA this year. Of these, 14,000 generally higher risk offenders with more complex needs were managed actively on a multi-agency basis. Gerry Sutcliffe commented:

“Protecting the public is at the heart of the Government’s priorities, and ensuring the effective management of the most dangerous offenders is a key part of our agenda. The offences committed by the population of offenders covered by the multi-agency public protection arrangements, or MAPPA, create intense suffering for victims and great concern for us all. Whilst we can never eliminate risk entirely, we are all entitled to expect that everything that can be done is being done to prevent these offenders from re-offending.

“This is the fifth year of MAPPA across England and Wales and it is clear from the annual reports published today that a huge amount of skill and commitment is deployed towards protecting the public from serious sexual and violent offenders and the agencies involved are more engaged than ever in tackling the harm caused by these offenders.”

The Annual Reports show a low level of serious re-offending by those managed at MAPPA Levels 2 and 3 and, just as importantly, they give a clear context to what it actually means in practice to work with these offenders in the community, the difficult decisions faced and the detailed plans required.

Helen Edwards, Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service said:

“The MAPPA Annual Reports offer an excellent opportunity to see how the most dangerous offenders are managed. There are no easy solutions with offenders having such complex needs but here we see detailed sentence planning, careful monitoring and swift intervention before behaviour escalates to serious re-offending.

“Protecting the public is an essential aspect of the developing National Offender Management Service; it is something we simply must get right, especially at this end of the scale. There are lessons to be learned along the way but the inter-agency work within MAPPA shows how all agencies involved in offender management can deliver an effective service.”

Terry Grange, Chief Constable of Dyfed-Powys Police and Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Public Protection spokesman said:

“This year's reports again reflect the important work being performed daily by staff across the agencies in the management of violent and sexual offenders. Each year brings about a new development for MAPPA and this year is no exception: there will be greater public accountability with the introduction of annual MAPPA Business Plans in each of the 42 areas. The MAPPA Strategic Management Boards are committed to the delivery of improvement on a number of key themes and their achievements will be openly reported upon.

“The work of the lay advisers is to be congratulated; they are dedicated to their roles and have, as hoped for, contributed the public perspective on many important issues. Police officers and staff across the UK have been using the Violent and Sex Offenders (ViSOR) database for nearly two years and this has ensured better risk assessments, linked-up intelligence and quicker information sharing between forces. I welcome the work that NOMS is doing to roll out ViSOR to the Probation and Prison Services as this will further improve public protection arrangements."

“It is impossible to ignore the tragic cases reported on this year which highlighted the need for improvements, but lessons are being learnt and significant work is being undertaken to improve the consistent delivery of the arrangements and the training of staff undertaking this complex and demanding work.”

Copies of the 42 MAPPA reports are available on the Probation Service website.