No 10 denies letting tabloids make policy

John Reid's call for review of Megan's law prompts accusations of bowing to tabloid pressure

Tuesday, 20, Jun 2006 12:00

Downing Street has rejected suggestions that it is creating policy "on the hoof" in response to tabloid newspaper concerns.

Tony Blair's official spokesman was responding to criticism by the chief constable of Dyfed Powys police, who warned that ministers were being "blackmailed" by the media.

Terry Grange said the government has abandoned any kind of coherent strategy for law and order and was simply formulating policy at the request of the tabloids.

His comments come after home secretary John Reid announced at the weekend that he was looking into how Megan's law, which allows members of the public access to details of child sex offenders in their area, was working in the US.

A shift from the government's earlier rejection of the idea, it was seen as a victory for the News of the World, which has been petitioning for a British version of this law, dubbed Sarah's law after murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne, for the past six years.

Speaking last night, Mr Grange expressed his "extreme concern about policy made up on the hoof", and said it was making the lives of probation and police officers impossible.

"Under the last three home secretaries it has been a litany of abandonment of any real strategic decision-making in favour of what one particular newspaper wants and then complying with their wishes," he told BBC Radio Four's The World Tonight.

"Anybody who has watched the last six months on all forms of the debate on public protection… it has all been brought about by the media putting pressure on the government and the government responding to it."

At the weekend, Mr Reid also announced that a number of convicted sex offenders would be moved, after the News of the World highlighted 60 living in government-sponsored homes near schools.

Mr Grange, who is the Association of Chief Police Officers' (Acpo's) spokesman on violence and sex offences, said this kind of policy change made it "impossible to do our job" and that many staff were in a "state of complete despair".

"It is impossible to work coherently and consistently when every month or six weeks there is a policy change brought about by the reaction to media," he said.

Asked why Mr Reid had decided to look at Megan's law now, when his predecessors had rejected the option, Mr Grange said: "The government a couple of years ago accepted the principle that they're prepared to be blackmailed.

"The News of the World now has a plan to have Sarah's law introduced and the government is slowly but surely acceding to that request and I don't think it's right to do so."

However, today Tony Blair's spokesman told reporters the government was only responding to "genuine concern in communities" about sex offenders.

"You could not simply say we have taken a stand on that so nothing will change. You have to continue to review what is possible and the experiences elsewhere and come to sensible conclusions," he said.

He added: "If we had said that we were going to introduce Megan's law today that would have been policy making on the hoof.

"The fact was that we were saying that [Home Office minister] Gerry Sutcliffe was going to go to the United States to look at the ten years of experience of Megan's law there. That was a considered approach."