The Sixth annual Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) reports are published today. The MAPPA bring together the police, probation and prison services in each of the 42 areas in England and Wales into what is known as the MAPPA "Responsible Authority". Other agencies are under a duty to co-operate with the responsible authority, including social care, health, housing and education services.

The "Child Sex Offender Review", published in June, identified a number of ways in which the administration and co-ordination of the arrangements could be improved. It is essential, if we are to be reassured that offenders are being managed properly, that those running MAPPA locally are able to monitor and report on the arrangements; and that accurate records of cases are kept and action plans followed up.

The Government have therefore committed £1.2 million to strengthen precisely these aspects of MAPPA. Complementing this commitment will be the development of national standards for MAPPA, establishing improved information sharing, robust performance management arrangements and the development of consistent, auditable MAPPA co-ordination processes. These standards will ensure that agencies are serviced with the best possible information on risk on which to make decisions. They will also provide an important benchmark against which to measure and then drive up performance.

In addition, we will be providing an extra £l million for the implementation of the Violent and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR) across the probation and prison services. For the first time, the three responsible authorities will be working on the same IT system enabling the sharing of risk assessments and risk management information on individual violent and sex offenders in a timely way to reduce re-offending.

The annual reports describe how the arrangements work locally and include key public protection achievements in each of the 42 police and probation Areas of England and Wales. They report on progress against local business plans, outline next year's plans, and provide contact points for further information. They also provide statistical information on the number of offenders eligible for the MAPPA and how they are managed.

Copies of every area report are being placed in the Libraries of both Houses, the Vote Office and the Printed Paper Office.

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