Lancashire Probation

The 1997 Sex Offenders act was the first piece of legislation which mean that the police and probation were required to work together to monitor sex offenders. Before this time these agencies dealt with these offenders separately and had their own methods in place to deal with these risks.

Using Risk Matrix 2000, which is a statistically derived tool to assess risk by the Prisons, Probation and Police, agencies began sharing information for the first time. At this time, the East Midlands area was slightly more advanced with multi-agency meetings being formally established to discuss high risk, difficult and dangerous offenders.

MAPPA arrangements were first introduced by the Criminal Justice and Courts Services Act 2000, enacted in 2001, which established that Responsible Authorities for each area (Probation and Police) 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.

In 2001 meetings were held for the first time, but there was no obligation to invite other agencies and duty to cooperate agencies did not yet exist. However, the Home Office encouraged a widening of this partnership so that other agencies could assist in this process. In 2003 the first guidance was issued when MAPPA was strengthened under the Criminal Justice Act 2003. MAPPA offenders were split into the three categories and three levels that we use today:

Category 1 - registered sexual offenders; Category 2 – (in the main) violent offenders sentenced to imprisonment for 12 months or more; and Category 3 – offenders who do not qualify under categories 1 or 2 but who currently pose a risk of serious harm.

There are three management levels intended to ensure that resources are focussed upon the cases where they are most needed; generally those involving the higher risks of serious harm. Level 1 involves ordinary agency management (i.e. no MAPPA meetings or resources); Level 2 is where the active involvement of more than one agency is required to manage the offender but the risk management plans do not require the attendance and commitment of resources at a senior level. Where senior oversight is required the case would be managed at Level 3.

The Criminal Justice Act 2003 introduced the requirement for MAPPA Strategic Management Boards to have 2 lay advisers. Lay advisers are members of the public, not normally connected to the criminal justice system, whose role it is to hold MAPPA to account.