Five hundred sex offenders change their name in two years

Police Scotland records reveal they were notified of 506 instances of sex criminals changing their names within a 23-month period between April 2023 and March 2025.

The data was obtained via a freedom of information request by the Scottish Conservatives, who have been calling for the Scottish government to legislate to prevent sex offenders from changing their names.

Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr MSP said: “It’s indefensible that the SNP continue to allow hundreds of sex offenders to play the system by changing their name every year.

“The public are being kept in the dark about the true identity of dangerous predators, which is putting them at greater risk.

“Those placed on the sex offenders’ register are there for good reason, yet our calls for this dangerous name-change loophole to be closed have been repeatedly and inexplicably ignored by SNP ministers.

“These rising figures are testament to the SNP’s relentless pandering to criminals at the expense of victims.

“It is vital that SNP’s ministers apply some common sense and urgently scrap this practice. They must do more to support police in monitoring these offenders.”