Tayside has seen an increase in registered sex offenders and most of them are in Dundee.
A report to next week’s meeting of the social work and health committee says that nearly all of them complied with rules and the system for managing them in the community is continuing to work well.
Councillors will consider the latest annual report on the Tayside MAPPA (Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements) scheme, which shows there were 345 registered sex offenders in Tayside in the year to March 31, an increase of 18.
Almost all of them 340 (98.5%) complied with registration requirements, which is higher than the 96.3% compliance in the previous year.
Dundee had 152 of them, 142 receiving lowest-level management and the other 10 being managed by more than one agency because they posed a high or very high risk of causing serious harm by reoffending.
Perth and Kinross had 107 97 in the former category and 10 in the latter. Angus had 86, with 81 low-level offenders and five needing supervision by more than one agency.
Tayside had no sex offenders in the highest category where senior supervision was deemed essential and extraordinary measures would be required.
Dundee’s director of social work and health Alan Baird explains that the majority of those who presented a low or medium risk were managed by the police only, and almost all of the sex offenders were male.
Thirty per cent of them were on statutory supervision and there were 27 restricted patients managed by NHS Tayside.
MAPPA is now in its fifth year and provides a framework for managing the risks to the public from registered sex offenders and restricted patients.
Tayside Police works with the three Tayside local authorities, NHS Tayside, the Scottish Prison Service and other agencies with a duty to co-operate to manage the most serious sex offenders living in communities.
The agencies are all committed to the MAPPA process to protect the public and reduce reoffending.
Mr Baird explained that raising awareness of MAPPA and the understanding of risk was a priority, and in Dundee the MAPPA coordinator is linked with lead officers in child protection, adult protection and the Dundee Violence Against Women Partnership for training events focused at a wide audience.
A one-woman drama The Little Things was commissioned and staged throughout the city and in secondary schools to ensure the public protection message was heard.
Mr Baird said MAPPA will continue to be the focus for the management of registered sex offenders and restricted patients, and agency practitioners will continue to receive support and training to carry out their complex task to a high standard.
He concluded that MAPPA continues to work well across Tayside.
An example of the supervision of a sex offender in the community was seen at Dundee Sheriff Court in May.
Sheriff Derrick Pyle told a 26-year-old man who tried to get a 15-year-old girl to send him nude pictures over the internet, that a period of imprisonment would not address any of the problems, but rather lead him ”back to square one.”
The man said he wanted to swap naked pictures with her, before discussing sex acts and urging her to access porn websites.
His solicitor told the court her client had previous convictions and had a history of depression for which he was receiving medication and was engaged with the Tay Project which works with sex offenders.
Sheriff Pyle placed him on a three-year community payback order, ordered him to be supervised and to take part in the Tay Project for the same period.