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.
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