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There are increased calls for laws to deal with child molesters, but who's listening? Bob Cervi writes

The brutal murder of nine-year-old Daniel Handley has put sex offenders in the political spotlight.

The conviction last month of Handley's killers has refuelled calls for a national register of sex offenders. The case has also provided another chance for government and opposition to try to upstage each other's get-tough policies.

Home Secretary Michael Howard will re-open the arguments when he publishes a consultation paper on tracking sex offenders. The outcome is expected to produce new policies to be published in a Crime Bill in the autumn.

One option the paper will almost certainly not address is the setting up of a database of sex offenders. According to the Home Office, there is no need for anything new because the Police National Computer already provides a basis for a register. The PNC shows who the convicted sex offenders are. What is needed is a mechanism for tracking them.

So Howard is likely to favour powers to require sex offenders to inform the police about changes of address. This, it is argued, would enable police forces to keep tabs on offenders and so prevent more offences against children.

But if the government is so keen on tackling paedophile rings, why won't it act sooner, ask critics? It rejected a recent Private Member's Bill from Labour MP Janet Anderson which might have provided for a national register of sex offenders more rapidly.

Perhaps the new Crime Bill will be part of a government pre-election vote-winning blitz. Shadow home secretary Jack Straw has backed Anderson's Bill, saying 'we must take whatever counter-measures are necessary' against sex offenders.

Such measures might include preventing contacts among paedophiles in prison and stopping sex offenders gaining access to witness statements and photographs, which could be used as pornography.

Perhaps a more significant proposal likely to be in the consultation paper is that of giving the courts new powers to bar sex offenders from working with children. This would strengthen vetting procedures used by local authorities.

One area ministers seem more reluctant to move into is that of tackling British paedophiles operating abroad. Another private member's Bill on sex offenders, published by Tory MP John Marshall, aims to tackle so-called sex tours abroad organised in Britain. Under the proposals, tour organisers could be prosecuted for inciting sexual abuse of children overseas - primarily in places such as Thailand and the Philippines.

Although the government has backed the Bill, it has rejected amendments which would allow sexual offences abroad to be tried by British courts. Such 'extra-territorial jurisdiction' on sex offences already operates in Australia and parts of Europe, but the British government has so far not followed this lead - to the anger of many Tories - even though the offences of murder, treason and piracy committed abroad can be prosecuted here.

Extra-territorial jurisdiction is still under review by the Home Office, whose conclusions are expected in the summer. But ministers are said to prefer pressuring other governments to stamp out paedophilia rather than allowing them to look to the British courts to tackle the problem.

Meanwhile sex offenders continue to seek refuge abroad. One of Handley's killers, Brett Tyler, was found in the Philippines, where paedophiles have been operating untouched by any judicial system.