Background and Legislative Framework Clause Samples

Background and Legislative Framework. In 2001, an Expert Panel, chaired by Lady Cosgrove, published a report entitled "Reducing the Risk: Improving the Response to Sex Offending’’. The Expert Panel highlighted the importance of sharing information. As a result the National Concordat on the Sharing of Information on Sex Offenders was developed and published. In signing the Concordat, agencies from all spectrums of the justice system, and statutory and non-statutory organisations involved in the management of sex offenders, agreed to work to a set of principles and working arrangements. This was intended to improve the systems and procedures to make sure that public safety is given the highest priority by ensuring that all relevant information is shared within the ▇▇▇▇▇ of existing legislation. Importantly, the Concordat requires all agencies involved to use agreed definitions and to develop detailed information sharing protocols under which the flow of information is to be managed. Protocols allow each agency to be clear about, and address, their legal obligations for sharing of information under the Data Protection ▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇ and other legislation. In 2009, the multi agency inspection report ‘Assessing and managing high risk of harm offenders’ Chapter 4, again reiterated the requirements for agencies to share information in respect of high risk of harm offenders and acknowledged the commitment of agencies to do so. The effective management of offenders who pose a risk of harm to the community requires a set of complex arrangements to be put in place by a number of agencies to address individual needs and circumstances and, most of all, to ensure that public protection is maintained. Whether information should be shared and, if so, what information and to whom, must be decided on a case-by-case basis. That said, the presumption should be that in cases where there is a risk of harm to the public, information should be shared. Critical to the justification of information sharing are the twin requirements of necessity and proportionality. The necessity criterion requires that there is a pressing public protection/individual need. The proportionality criterion requires the information shared must be only that information necessary to achieve the purpose for which it is being shared. Within this framework, the partners to this Protocol undertake to co-operate fully within the parameters of the Data Protection ▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇ and the Human Rights ▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇ All partners recognise:  the importance of sharing re...