CHILD sex offenders can volunteer at schools in WA because laws designed to stop them are not being used, a Government document warns.

In a submission to a review of the state's child sex offender register, the Department of Child Protection told WA Police there were genuine fears that "known child sex offenders" would be volunteering at their children's school and would "gain access to other children".



It said the Community Protection (Offender Reporting) Act was supposed to protect children by allowing the use of prohibition orders to ban reportable offenders from volunteering at their children's schools.



The DCP document, accessed for the first time under Freedom of Information laws, said the department had dropped its push to make all parent volunteers undergo a Working With Children check, because it believed the prohibition orders would be a safeguard.



"Such orders have not, to our knowledge, been made and this is contributing to widespread calls for the parent volunteer exemption (for Working With Children checks) to be lifted," the document said.



The DCP warning came in September 2011 but this week director-general Terry Murphy said he was still "unaware if any prohibition orders have been issued". WA Police also couldn't tell The Sunday Times whether any orders had been issued.



A police spokesman said the protection of children was a high priority for police, and where there was information that a person who would be considered a danger to children was working closely with them "all options to prevent that from happening would be explored, and action would be taken".



In its submission the DCP said the Barnett Government's scheme for a public sex offender register could actually put children at further risk by driving offenders underground and creating a false sense of security.



The FOI request also revealed a submission from the Department of Corrective Services arguing that it did not make sense to expand the laws so that other types of offenders were governed by the CPOR Act.



The Act requires that sex offenders report routinely to police and advise them of changes to their whereabouts and other personal details. The Government recently flagged expanding laws to include criminals such as arsonists.



But the DCS submission said this would simply "dilute" the legislation.



Contrary to that, a submission by the Education Department said arsonists should be brought under CPOR laws because schools were often the target of attacks.



The final report into the review of the CPOR Act was released late last year.



It included 20 recommendations, but did not mention the DCP's concerns.



WA Police are monitoring about 2850 reportable offenders. Of those, 800 are considered at high risk of re-offending.

