Amendments to Child Protection Act

Police Minister Paula Bennett has announced that some provisions of the Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Government Agency Registration) Act 2016 will be amended.

“Since the commencement of the register concerns have been raised that the Act may not provide for the registration of some child sex offenders as was intended,” says Mrs Bennett. “There are 107 offenders who have been taken off the register who were intended to be on it.

The amendments are being introduced to Parliament today to make clear that the registration requirements apply to all child sex offenders that were intended to be registered when the Act came into force on 14 October 2016.

“Where the legislation has been challenging is in the situations where offenders who were convicted before the law came into effect but not sentenced, and those sentenced before and on release conditions when the legislation came into effect. To remove any doubt, we’re putting this through parliament under urgency to ensure those that were always intended to be registered are done so as soon as possible.

“Any retrospective law is complicated but we’ve seen a problem and we’re moving to fix it urgently.

“The 107 offenders have been monitored by Police and Corrections during the time they were taken off the register but there are certain additional conditions that they will now be subject to as a result of being placed back on the register,” Mrs Bennett says.