Approved Premises

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For premises approved for marriage, see Marriage Act 1994.

In the United Kingdom, Approved Premises (AP), formerly known as probation or bail hostels, are residential units which house ex-offenders in the community. They are recognised under the

child sex offenders
in 2006 following a media campaign, which has led to some criticism.

Description

Formerly known as either

registered sex offenders in the surrounding areas.[8]

While staff provide support to the offenders and run programmes to address offending issues,[3] they do not conduct searches of individual offenders and will use local police assistance as necessary. A staff to resident ratio of one to five is typical, with most staff made up of trained professionals, while night time staff may be from private security firms.[3]

Approved Premises are also run in Northern Ireland, which had six APs as of 2008.[9] A report looked into the APs in Northern Ireland during 2008, and reported on their uneven distribution throughout the region and the volume of work conducted by staff. All of the Northern Irish APs are run by voluntary or community providers.[9]

Local opposition

There can be opposition to locating an Approved Premises in a community, with certain communities mounting protests against them.

child sex offenders, have been resident.[2] Reports have shown that local opposition is a major obstacle to opening APs in new locations,[6] and although expansion schemes have been announced in the past,[4] the current number of hostels has remained relatively stable in the last five years.[1][3] Official spokespersons have said that "Approved Premises are safer for the public than the alternative which is to disperse such offenders in the local community immediately after release, making supervision much less effective."[10]

Panorama investigated the Brigstocke Road and Ashley Road hostels in Bristol during November 2006.[12] The program showed a child sex offender interacting with children, and even bringing one into his room at the hostel. Brigstocke Road was identified as a property near to a nursery and became one of the properties which later had a ban on it housing child sex offenders. Ashley House was unaffected.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Approved Premises". National Approved Premises Association. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  2. ^ a b Henwood, Chris (9 June 2011). "Grooming suspect placed in controversial Aldrdge bail hostel near child". Birmingham Mail.
  3. ^ a b c d "Q&A: Bail hostels". BBC News. 7 November 2006.
  4. ^ a b "Super-Hostels Plan for Violent and Sexual Offenders". Daily Mirror. 25 April 2006.
  5. ^ "Raymond Horne: What happens next?". BBC News. 20 March 2008.
  6. ^ a b c "Paedophile hostel ban criticised". BBC News. 28 March 2008.
  7. ^ Sapsted, David (1 July 2006). "Paedophile is moved from jail to family hotel". The Telegraph.
  8. ^ Henfield, Sally (21 October 2008). "10 per cent rise in sex offenders in East Lancashire". Burnley Citizen.
  9. ^ a b "Hostels Make 'Significant Contribution' But Staff Still Pressurised". 4NI.co.uk. 17 July 2008. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012.
  10. ^ a b Thandi, Gurdip (11 September 2008). "Protest at Stonnall bail hostel". Birmingham Mail.
  11. ^ "After decades of opposition, Aldridge bail hostel set to be moved". Express & Star. 30 May 2011.
  12. ^ a b "Hostel Stops Housing Paedophiles". BBC News. 9 January 2007.
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