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Committee News Release

CJ1 004 2004

Friday 29 October 2004
 

CALL FOR EVIDENCE ON THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AND PREVENTION OF SEXUAL OFFENCES (SCOTLAND) BILL
 

The Justice 1 Committee is seeking views from all interested parties on the general principles of the Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Bill.

The Bill’s policy objective is to create a new offence of sexual grooming of a person under 16 by an adult aged 18 or over. The Bill would also create risk of sexual harm orders, which are designed to protect children from those who display inappropriate behaviour towards them, and enable further use of sexual offences prevention orders, so that they can be applied to those convicted of sex offences by the court when they are sentenced.

The Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Parliament on 29 October 2004.

Interested individuals and organisations are invited to submit written evidence to the Committee. Owing to the timing of the Christmas break, a slightly shorter consultation period than the normal 8 weeks is, on this occasion, unavoidable and, therefore, the closing date for evidence is 5pm on 21 December 2004.

Evidence should be reasonably brief and typewritten (normally no more than 4 sides of A4) and set out in numbered paragraphs. Evidence should be clearly marked Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Bill – response to the call for evidence at stage 1 and submitted in one of the following ways:

Owing to the timescale required for the processing and analysis of evidence, late submissions will only be accepted with the advance agreement of the Convener. Evidence received may be published by the Parliament and will be treated as a public document unless the submission specifically requests otherwise. All responses will be circulated to the Committee. It would be helpful if submissions could be made by email as this will enable us to process them with the minimum of delay. All responses become the property of the Parliament and we are unable to return documents.

BACKGROUND NOTES:

The Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Bill is published as SP Bill 30 and is available from the Stationery Office and on the Parliament’s website at: /bills/billsInProgress/children.htm

Explanatory Notes (and the Executive's and Presiding Officer's statements on legislative competence) are published separately as SP Bill 30-EN. A Policy Memorandum is also published separately as SP Bill 30-PM. For information, you may wish to consult the Guidance on Public Bills, which is also available on the website.

 

For further information, the media contact is:

Richard Holligan Tel: 0131 348 6269
RNID TypeTalk calls welcome
email: richard.holligan@scottish.parliament.uk
 

For specific committee information, contact:
Douglas Thornton, Assistant Clerk: 0131 348 5220
Email: Douglas.Thornton@scottish.parliament.uk
 

For general enquiries, contact: 0845 278 1999 (local call rate)
Text phone: 0131 348 3415 RNID Typetalk calls welcome on 018001
email: sp.info@scottish.parliament.uk
Visit our website at: www.scottish.parliament.uk