Legal bid for sex offender data

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Three housing associations have launched a legal bid to find out how many sex offenders live in their areas.

They want to know if poorer communities have a higher number of registered offenders living among them.

Strathclyde Police and the Information Commissioner have both rejected the request for statistics.

The associations - Blochairn and Craigdale in Glasgow and Dunbritton in Dumbarton - have appealed to the Court of Session.

The associations insisted they were looking for information that could inform a public debate, and were not seeking individual names and addresses.

But Strathclyde Police said the data could lead to attempts to identify individuals.

The force said this could prompt registered sex offenders fleeing the area and breaching the terms of their supervision.

Information Commissioner Kevin Dunion agreed that disclosure of the information could lead to offenders being identified.

Campaigners have previously called for a "Mark's law" - named after murdered schoolboy Mark Cummings - giving parents information about sex offenders living in their neighbourhoods.

The eight-year-old was murdered by a convicted paedophile who had been living in the same tower block in Royston, Glasgow, in 2004.