Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill: $100k fine, 3-year jail for officials who leak info from proposed sex offenders’ database

As the Guyana Government seek to established a National Sex Offender Database, amendments recently tabled to the Sexual Offences Act outlines serious penalties for officials with access to the platform who discloses any information about the perpetrators listed.
The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill 2026 was tabled by Human Services and Social Security Minister, Vindhya Persaud, to the National Assembly on Friday, where it was read for the first time.
This proposed Bill seeks to amend the Sexual Offences Act Cap. 8:03 to reform the law relating to sexual offences and to provide for the establishment of a National Sex Offender Database, a centralised system of recording information about persons convicted of sexual offences under this act. It will include Guyanese who are convicted of a sexual offence by a court within or outside of Guyana as of May 2010 and who have completed or are serving their sentence.
The Bill says that the database, which would not be accessible to the public, would be established by the Commission of Police with approval from the Home Affairs Minister. The Police Commissioner will maintain the database and ensure the information is entered accurately as well as implement measures to secure the information against unauthorised access, collection, distribution, alteration, disclosure and disposal.
Section 7 of Fourth Schedule outlines the penalty for anyone who unlawfully disseminates information from the database. It states: “Any person who, having been granted access to the database, unlawfully distributes, transmits, or reproduces any information contained in therein commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of one hundred thousand dollars or imprisonment for three years or both.”
The proposed legislations further noted that an application for information from the database, including about a specific sexual offender, would have to be made to the Police Commissioner and the Home Affairs Minister in writing, outlining the reason for the request. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is exempted from making an application to access the database.
It was noted that persons attached to a State or non-State institution working with children or vulnerable adults shall be provided with the information relating to a specific sexual offender identified on the database.
Meanwhile, in addition to these new insertions, there are also amendments to the existing law regarding the publication of information for persons not charged with any sexual offences.

Exempted
According to the Explanatory Memorandum of the proposed Bill, Clause 7 amends Section 62 of the Principal Act to prohibit the publication of information that could identify a person not formally charged with an offence under the Act.
Moreover, Section 91B provides that a person who was a child at the time of the commission of a sexual offence would be exempted from being listed on the database, as well as a person suffering from a mental disability that may have substantially impaired that person’s mental responsibility for their actions in relation to the offence,
At Section 91E, it caters for the Court to order a person who is convicted of a sexual offence, on or after the commencement of this proposed legislation to report to an officer in charge of the police station for the purpose of registering as a registered sex offender. For those who have appealed their conviction, Section 91F provides for the Court to withhold deciding on whether the sex offender shall register or report pursuant to police, pending the completion of the appeal.
There is also a provision at Section 91G for a Guyanese to comply with these requirements when entering Guyana, if that person does an act in a country outside of Guyana which, if it were done here, would constitute an offence under this Act.

Discharge of a sex offender
Further, Section 91H provides for the Director of Prison to inform the Police Commissioner of the date of discharge of a sex offender from prison, within three months prior to the discharge date. The Commissioner, within two months of receiving that information, will have notify the victim and their family of the impending release of the offender.
Then Section 91I provides that within one month before the discharge of a sex offender from prison, the Commissioner of Police shall assign a designated officer to interview and collect all necessary information from the sex offender including intended address as well as inform the convict of the requirement to report to the nearest police station within seven days of being released.
Section 91J provides for the timeframe and varying circumstances in which a sex offender shall make their initial report to the police station. It notes that a sex offender who, without reasonable excuse, fails-to make the initial report to a police station or fails to comply with a request made by a designated officer under this section, commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of $500,000 and to imprisonment.
The other sections also outline critical details and requirements for sex offenders such as them informing the police about changes of address and changes, including through the court, in the requirement to report to the police.

Travel outside of Guyana
Additionally, there provisions at Section 91O for registered sex offenders in Guyana, who intends to travel outside the country to report to the police at least seven days before their departure date and provide details of their travel including their intended country and address as well as duration of stay and date of return. In exceptional circumstances the registered sex offender shall make the report in not less than 48 hours before their intended time of departure.
Section 91P provides that where there is no police station in an Amerindian Village or Amerindian Community, a sex offender shall report to the applicable Toshao.
Moreover, Section 91Q states that a registered sex offender may apply to the High Court to have the information contained in the database be expunged on the completion of his or her reporting period; or on the basis of any compelling reasons.
Where an application is successful under this section, the information of the sex offender shall be expunged and a certificate to this effect shall be made in the form set out in the Seventh Schedule.