There are four categories of individuals who are managed through MAPPA.

Category 1 - Those subject to notification requirements under Sexual Offences Act 2003. These individuals are required to notify the police of their name, address and other personal details. The length of time an individual is required to register with the Police can be any period between 12 months and life, depending on their age, the age of the victim, the nature of the offence and the sentence received.

Category 2 - Those convicted of mainly violent offences who have been sentenced to 12 months or more in custody or to detention in hospital and are now living in the community.

Category 3 - Other dangerous individuals who have committed an offence in the past and are considered to pose a risk of serious harm to the public.

Category 4 - Those subject to notification requirements under the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008; those convicted of terrorism offences who have been sentenced to 12 months or more in custody or to detention in hospital and are now living in the community; and those who have committed an offence and may be at risk of involvement in terrorism-related activity.

There are three levels of MAPPA management. They are mainly based upon the level of multi-agency co-operation required with higher risk cases tending to be managed at the higher levels. Individuals will be moved up and down levels as appropriate.

Level 1 - Multi-agency support is where the risks posed by the individual can be managed by the lead agency in co-operation with other agencies but without the need for formal multi-agency meetings. Responsible Authority and Duty to Co-operate agencies have a statutory obligation to engage with MAPPA at all levels, including Level 1, and will be involved in the management of the individual as necessary.  

Level 2 - Active multi-agency management is where the ongoing involvement of several agencies is needed to manage the individual. Once at Level 2, there will be regular multi-agency public protection meetings about the individual.

Level 3 - Enhanced multi-agency management is more demanding on resources and requires the involvement of senior people from the agencies, who can authorise the use of extra resources, for example, surveillance or emergency accommodation. 

MAPPA brings together the Police, Probation and Prison Service into what is known as the MAPPA Responsible Authority for each MAPPA Area. MAPPA areas are aligned with police force areas.

A number of other agencies are under a duty to co-operate with the Responsible Authority. These include Children's Services, Adult Social Services, Health Trusts and Authorities, Youth Offending Teams, Local Housing Authorities, Job Centre Plus and certain registered social landlords and electronic monitoring providers. These are known as Duty to Co-operate (DTC) agencies. The purpose of DTC agencies is to help strengthen MAPPA to make defensible decisions about the management of offenders and to acknowledge their crucial role in the resettlement and rehabilitation of offenders in order to reduce the risk of harm posed and risk of reoffending. The key roles of any agency operating within MAPPA are to:

• Provide a point of contact for other agencies
• Provide specific advice about the risk assessment and management of a particular offender
• Provide general advice about an agency's role and its services
• Co-ordinate its approach as well as possible with other agencies
• Share information in the interest of public protection.

A strategic Management Board (SMB) meets regularly in each area to oversee the operation of MAPPA in that area. The SMB is responsible for the implementation of the MAPPA Guidance in line with local initiatives and priorities. The SMB consists of senior members of the police, probation and prison service and also includes senior representatives from key and specialist services.  Each Board is supported by two Lay Advisers who provide a local perspective and reflect the views of the public. The SMB is responsible for:

• Producing an annual business plan
• Producing and publishing the MAPPA Annual Report
• Links with local Safeguarding Children and Adults Boards, Local Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships and Local Criminal Justice Boards
• Ensuring there is a system in place to review and monitor serious further offending by MAPPA offenders and, where required, to conduct MAPPA serious case reviews for those offenders who have gone on to commit serious further offences whilst being managed under MAPPA.
• Measuring performance against a national set of key performance indicators
• Planning the local longer term development of MAPPA
• Training agencies involved within MAPPA
• Auditing MAPPA process by conducting annual audits on a percentage of cases managed under MAPPA.

ViSOR is a secure national database that has been developed to support MAPPA by assisting cooperative working between the Responsbile Authority agencies. It is used in the joint management of invididuals posing a risk of serious harm.

ViSOR provides officers fulfilling public protection roles with a confidential communication tool through which they are able to exchange information with others involved in multi-agency offender management.  In addition to being a valuable offender management, information management and intelligence system, ViSOR can benefit all crime investigation.

Where a MAPPA offender moves to a new area, the VISOR record will move to the new area, ensuring information and intelligence is shared.

Each Registered Sexual Offender will have a VISOR officer working in a local VISOR unit. These officers have responsibility for managing the offender and for updating VISOR with key information and intelligence.

If a Court decides, at the time of sentencing, that an offender is suffering from mental disorder they can order their admission and detention to a hospital for psychiatric treatment. The Crown Court may also impose a Restriction Order for the protection of the public from serious harm.  Restriction Orders are for an unlimited period. These patients are commonly termed ‘restricted patients’.

 Restricted patients are mentally disordered offenders who are detained in hospital for treatment or who are conditionally discharged into the community and who are subject to special controls by the Justice Secretary due to the level of risk they pose. These controls include permission for community leave, transfer to another hospital, discharge and recall to hospital. The Mental Health Casework Section takes these decisions on behalf of the Justice Secretary.

Detained patients are usually treated in secure hospitals, and will be given gradual access to the community as part of their rehabilitation only when it is safe to do so

Under the Mental Health Act, the Justice Secretary can discharge a restricted patient from hospital and all restricted patients will also have access to the independent First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health) which has a statutory duty to discharge patients who no longer meet the criteria for detention under the Act.

Should a restricted patient be discharged, this will usually be subject to specific conditions, which are generally centred around accommodation, supervision and abstinence from drugs and alcohol. Conditions however may also include those designed to protect victims such as ‘no contact’ or exclusion zones. For those victims in the Victim Contact Scheme the Victim Liaison Officer will be consulted.

Should a conditionally discharged restricted patient show symptoms of a change in mental state or relapse such that the risks they pose to themselves or others is increased, the Justice Secretary may recall them to a secure hospital. If a restricted patient is granted an absolute discharge the Justice Secretary will no longer have any involvement.

The risk presented by offenders can never be fully eliminated and, on occasions, offenders managed under MAPPA will commit, or attempt to commit, serious further offences. When this happens, a Serious Case Review (SCR) may be held to examine whether the policies, processes and actions employed by all agencies were appropriate and to identify where they could be improved. Plans are then put in place to make these improvements.

The SMB will decide whether a SCR is warranted (using the criteria specified in the MAPPA guidance), establish the remit of the review and then either undertake the review itself or commission an qualified external report writer to complete the review. Each SCR involves a MAPPA Lay Adviser to represent the views of the public and to scrutinise the findings of the report.

Disclosing information to third parties in order to reduce risk has always been a consideration for agencies working with MAPPA offenders. The decision to disclose to a third party must be necessary and proportionate in order to protect victims, potential victims, staff and the community. Third party disclosure is most common to ex or current partners, faith groups, employers, schools, colleges or leisure centres etc.

When considering disclosure, it must be established that disclosure is reasonable, necessary, lawful and proportionate to the risk that the individual MAPPA offender poses.

It is essential that when any disclosure is made, the person receiving the information is aware of the obligations this places on them, what they are able to do with the information, that they are willing to sign an undertaking to keep the information confidential and are able to demonstrate that they will work with the lead agency to ensure that the needs of children and others identified as being at risk of serious harm are safeguarded.

The disclosing agency should consider whether it would be appropriate to involve other agencies in the disclosure process such as a joint disclosure by the police and probation.

Threats to a child's safety are more likely to originate from a family member or family friend than a complete stranger. The vast majority of child sex offenders are related to or known to their victim.

The Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme has been developed to improve access to information that may help protect children from the risk of abuse. The scheme allows parents, carers, guardians or interested third parties to ask the police to tell them about a person's record of child sex offences if they are concerned about that person's access to a child.

In addition, the police may also disclose information about a person who poses a risk of harm to children due to a history of serious violence or where they have been suspected of sex offences.

Under MAPPA, police and probation already disclose information about registered sex offenders and violent offenders in a controlled way to a variety of people, including head teachers, leisure centre managers, employers, landlords and parents. The disclosure scheme is an additional tool that the police can use to keep children safe.

Disclosure will only happen if the police believe there is a need to protect a child and that it is necessary and proportionate. Information will only be disclosed to the person best-placed to protect the child and anyone receiving this information must keep it confidential and use it only to protect the child concerned.

Anyone who breaches the confidence of the UK scheme may have action taken against them by the police.

Members of the public can submit a disclosure request to the police by letter, phone, at a police station or by speaking directly to any police officer. The request will be managed by a specialist unit, who will contact the requester once the request has been recorded on the force's database. The police will require information about the requester, the child believed to be at risk and the person concerned about. If you think a child is in immediate danger call 999 at any time and your concern will be dealt with under existing child protection arrangements.

The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme enables people to find out if their partner, or potential partner, has a history of abuse or violence. The scheme is more commonly known as Clare's Law and commemorates Clare Wood, who was murdered by her violent ex-partner, George Appleton, at her Salford home in 2009. Clare was unaware of Appleton's history of violence against women and following her death her family campaigned for a change in the law to support actual and potential victims of domestic violence.

The scheme aims to prevent men and women from becoming victims of domestic violence and abuse by providing a formal method of making enquiries about an individual who they are in a relationship with or who is in a relationship with someone they know and there is a concern that the individual may be abusive towards their partner.

The scheme works in two ways:

Right to ask: Victims (potential and actual), third parties (parents, neighbours and friends) and agencies can all make requests under the scheme.

Right to know: The police make a proactive decision to disclose details when they receive information to suggest a person could be at risk.

If police checks reveal the individual has a record for abusive offences or there is information to suggest a person is at risk, the police will give consideration to sharing this information with the person at risk or a person who is best placed to protect the potential victim.

The scheme aims to help the potential victim make an informed decision on whether to continue a relationship and provides further help and support to assist them when making that choice.

A request should be made to police by calling 101, speaking to a police officer or visiting a police station. If you believe there is an immediate risk of harm to someone, or it is an emergency, you should always call 999.