Commentary on Sections Section 4: Offences committed in a country outside the United Kingdom
This section inserts into Part 2 of the 2003 Act new sections 96A and 96B which make offenders who come to Northern Ireland with convictions (or cautions, etc.) from other jurisdictions statutorily subject to the notification requirements of the 2003 Act, that is, without the need for the police to make an application to the courts for a notification order.
The change to notification procedures is in respect of offenders coming to Northern Ireland with a conviction from another country for a relevant offence, within the specified time, as set out in the 2003 Act. A relevant offence is one listed in Schedule 3 to the 2003 Act. It removes the need for the police to apply to the court for a notification order and instead makes the individual offender liable to notify after three days once he or she has stayed for a qualifying period. The qualifying period is the first seven days (including where two or more periods in one year together amount to seven days) that a person, who does not normally reside in Northern Ireland, is in Northern Ireland. Offenders with convictions from states which are not members of the Council of Europe will have a right to apply to the High Court for an order to remove notification, if the court is satisfied that the conviction which led to notification was obtained by human rights abuses.