Enhanced protection: Law Reform Commission Review of Sexual Offences Sub-committee chairman Peter Duncan proposes interim measures for a sex offender register.

The Law Reform Commission is seeking public views on proposed interim measures for a sex offender register. The consultation will run until October 31.

It recommends forming an administrative scheme enabling employers to check criminal records of prospective staff applying for work relating to children and the mentally incapacitated. The check will show only convictions for a specified list of sexual offences, and not those regarded as "spent" under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Ordinance.

Presenting the proposals today, chairman of the commission's Review of Sexual Offences Sub-committee Peter Duncan said the interim scheme can be implemented quickly by administrative means without legislation to address concern from the public, the courts and the media.

The eventual aim is to devise a scheme for the treatment, rehabilitation, risk assessment and management of sex offenders to better protect the community, particularly children, without unjustifiably infringing offenders' privacy, he said.

The sub-committee does not favour introducing a sex offender register which can be accessed by the general public. Instead, the scheme now operated by the Police for providing Certificates of No Criminal Conviction can be modified and adapted to the proposed checks.

Mr Duncan said the scheme is modest compared with those adopted in many other jurisdictions. The community can give views on the proposals and whether they should additionally apply to existing employees.

Click here for the consultation paper, or get one from the Law Reform Commission at 20/F, Harcourt House, 39 Gloucester Road, Wan Chai.