The National Child Offender System (NCOS) helps police protect the community by enabling them to uphold child protection legislation in their state and territory. It is a web-based application that allows Australian police to record and share child offender information. It directly enables police in each state and territory to manage key information to meet their requirements under respective child protection legislation.

The NCOS consists of the Australian National Child Offender Register (ANCOR) and the Managed Person System (MPS):

• the ANCOR allows authorised police officers to register, case manage and share information about registered persons. It assists police to uphold child protection legislation in their state or territory
• the MPS holds information on alleged offenders who are charged but not convicted, or after an offender's reporting obligations have been completed.

The ANCOR was enhanced in late 2017 to support changes made to the Passports Legislation Amendment (Overseas Travel by Child Sex Offenders) Act 2017. The Child Protection Offender Registries in each state and territory can request the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to:

• cancel an Australian passport
• request the surrender of a foreign passport
• issue a limited validity Australian passport.

An Australian Child Protection Offender Reporting scheme is established by legislation in each Australian state and territory. This national scheme requires child sex offenders, and other defined categories of serious offenders against children, to keep police informed of their whereabouts and other personal details for a period of time after they are released into the community. This register is not intended to be punitive in nature, but is implemented to protect the community by allowing police to exercise authority to case manage offenders thereby reducing the likelihood that an offender will reoffend. The register and its supporting legislation also assists police in the investigation and prosecution of any future offences offenders may commit.

National Child Offender Register

Each Australian police agency operates the National Child Offender System (NCOS–formerly know as the ANCOR) in accordance with the respective legislation of their state or territory. Please direct any requests about information contained on this system to the Child Protection Unit in the relevant police agency as listed below:

Domestic violence is a serious and widespread problem in Australia. Approximately one in six women and one in 16 men have experienced partner violence since the age of 15. In addition, one in four women and one in six men have experienced emotional abuse by a partner since the age of 15.[1]

Domestic violence is a critical issue for the Australian Government and all state and territory governments.

The National Domestic Violence Order (DVO) Scheme was introduced in November 2017 to better protect Australians. All DVOs issued from 25 November 2017 are automatically nationally recognised and enforceable. Victims no longer need to apply to register these DVOs in other Australian states and territories for them to be enforceable across the country.

We delivered an interim information sharing capability to support the National DVO Scheme. The capability includes a secure web portal that allows local courts across Australia to access DVO information held in the National Police Reference System.

These information sharing capabilities ensure police have greater situational awareness when responding to domestic violence incidents, improving both victim and police safety, and ensure local courts can effectively deal with DVOs under the National DVO Scheme.

To find out more about the National DVO Scheme, go to www.ag.gov.au/ndvos.

[1] Australian Bureau of Statistics, Personal Safety, Australia, 2016 (Catalogue No. 4906.0)