Chris Grayling backs an extension of "Sarah's Law"

The News of the World has been campaigning for a decade with the family of Sarah Payne, who was murdered by a convicted sex offender, to allow all parents the legal right to know the identity of any serious child sex offenders living in their community.

The paper reported today that after a pilot of such a scheme - known as "Sarah's Law" - in Hampshire, Warwickshire, north Cambridgeshire and Cleveland, it is to be rolled out across England and Wales.

And speaking to the BBC's Politics Show earlier today, shadow home secretary Chris Grayling indicated his support for that extension:

"Clearly we all have huge sympathy with the objectives of Sarah’s Law. If the pilots have worked, we would be entirely supportive of extending those elsewhere. You know, this is a very, very difficult, it’s a very sensitive area, and if these pilots have made a difference, then that’s all for the good.

Challenged with the suggestion that it could incite vigilante-style revenge on individuals, he replied:

"I think we have to be quick to intervene if that happens. And that’s why I think it’s been right to pilot this whole approach in a number of areas of the country. But if those pilots have shown that actually it makes a difference, that it doesn’t lead to vigilante-style justice, then I’d be very sympathetic and supportive of the idea that it could now be extended."

Jonathan Isaby