Introducing a so-called "Sarah's Law" would not protect children from predatory paedophiles and would be "unworkable", the British Home Office Minister, Ms Beverley Hughes, said yesterday.
Within minutes of Roy Whiting's conviction this week for the abduction and murder of eight-year-old schoolgirl, Sarah Payne, it was revealed that he was convicted in 1995 for a serious sexual assault on a child. He was sentenced to four years and released less than three years later. Two years after his release he murdered Sarah Payne.
Sarah Payne's family and the News of the World have led a national campaign for a change in the law, similar to "Megan's Law" in the US, to allow parents to have access to information about sex offenders living in their area.
The campaign for "Sarah's Law" has been revived with Whiting's conviction. But Ms Hughes indicated the government had not changed its position, stated last year, that a change in the law would make it even more difficult to protect children and risked driving paedophiles underground.
"It's unworkable," Ms Hughes told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "Offenders move. There is nothing to stop an offender whose name has been disclosed in one area buying a van and driving 100 miles to another area. Parents themselves also move. They visit family. They go on holiday. The idea that you can give parents all the time the names of people who might be a threat is simply unworkable. We have concluded that disclosure would not be in the interests of protecting children."
However, while the government is resisting demands for "Sarah's Law", the Home Secretary, Mr David Blunkett, is due to publish next month his response to a review of sentencing for sex offenders.
It is likely he will recommend life sentences for serious sex offences and a reversal of the current practice of automatic release for sex offenders who have served two-thirds of their sentence.
The Chief Constable of Dyfed Powys Police, Mr Terry Grange, who deals with sex offender issues for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said he supported the government's stance on "Sarah's Law".
"If we start naming paedophiles a good proportion of them will disappear," he said, pointing out that the police did not have the resources to monitor everyone on the Sex Offenders' Register.