Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) in Scotland: national overview report 2023-24

1. Background

The Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), are a set of statutory partnership working arrangements introduced in 2007 under Section 10 of the Management of Offenders etc. (Scotland) Act 2005 (the 2005 Act).

The purpose of MAPPA is the protection of the public and the reduction of serious harm. In Scotland MAPPA brings together the Police, Scottish Prison Service (SPS), Health Boards and the Local Authorities in partnership as the Responsible Authorities, to assess and manage the risk posed by certain categories of offender:

• Sex offenders who are subject to notification requirements under the Sexual Offences Act 2003;
• Mentally disordered restricted patients; and
• Other individuals who by reason of their conviction are assessed by the Responsible Authorities as posing a risk of serious harm to the public.

A number of other agencies have a ‘Duty to Cooperate’ (DTC) with the Responsible Authorities, including housing providers, the voluntary sector, Social Security Scotland and the Children's Reporter.

The operation of MAPPA in Scotland is supported by National Guidance^[1] and procedures. There are ten MAPPA regions in Scotland (Appendix A) and each region is overseen by a Strategic Oversight Group (SOG) consisting of senior representatives from each of the Responsible Authorities. In each MAPPA region the SOG meets regularly and monitors and reviews how the MAPPA arrangements are working.

The MAPPA National Strategic Group (NSG) is responsible for the strategic oversight and development of MAPPA. It is chaired by the Scottish Government and includes the 10 MAPPA SOG Chairs and representatives from the Responsible Authorities.

Responsible Authorities fulfil their statutory duties in part by jointly preparing and publishing their own local MAPPA annual reports. Each of these can be viewed on Local Authority websites, links to which are included at Appendix B.

This report covers the period from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, the seventeenth year of MAPPA operating in Scotland, and it provides an overview of the main national developments as a result of work conducted by the Scottish Government and its partners. The report comprises a range of contributions from each of the Responsible Authorities, which outlines the progress made in respect of their MAPPA functions during the reporting period, and also includes details of ongoing work and future plans.

For the first time, the report includes a new section, ‘MAPPA in Operation’ which provides real world examples of collaborative working in each of the MAPPA regions. The report also details some of the improvements made at a local level during the reporting period and includes a new section on Significant Case Reviews (SCRs) - which documents any SCRs that have taken place during the reporting period and outlines progress to date of any associated recommendations. Also, for the first time this year, the report includes self-reported performance data from the MAPPA regions on meeting the National Performance Indicators (NPIs).

There are a number of statistics on Registered Sex Offenders (RSOs) included in the report (Appendix C) which have been extracted from the ViSOR (Violent and Sex Offender Register) database. These figures provide a snapshot as at 31 March 2024.