Areas of West Lothian continue to have some of the highest numbers of sex offenders in Scotland, new figures reveal.
The EH54 postcode area – which includes Livingston, Uphall and Broxburn – has the highest number of sex offenders in the Lothians at 49 - one more than the last time stats were released in October.
The area also houses the fifth highest number of registered sex offenders in Scotland, tied with the KA11 area in Fife and DD2 in Dundee.
West Lothian’s EH48 and EH49 postcodes - which include the Armadale, Blackburn, Bathgate, Fauldhouse - which were reported as having 37 and 17 registered sex offenders respectively.
This is again an increase from October, when EH48 had 34. The figure for EH49 remains the same.
EH47, which includes Whitburn, Blackburn, Fauldhouse, East Whitburn, Livingston, Stoneyburn, Seafield and Longridge, also remains the same as October, at 22.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Protecting the public is a priority for Police Scotland. While we can never eliminate risk entirely, we want to reassure communities that all reasonable steps are being taken to protect them.
“We put in place measures to minimise the likelihood of further sexual re-offending by Registered Sex Offenders (RSOs) and would seek to re-assure people that sexual re-offending rates remain extremely low.
“RSOs are robustly managed by the police and our partners through the Multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA), and subject to comprehensive risk assessment and risk management in the community. Police Scotland has units of dedicated officers specially trained for this task.”
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