One of the most senior police officers in the UK has called for greater debate about treating paedophiles rather than sending them to prison, amid concerns there is not enough space in prisons to jail them all. Currently, there are close to 45,000 names on the sex offenders register. The list contains details of people convicted of sexual offences and is used to monitor offenders following their release from prison. It has been steadily increasing since it was established in 1997. Chief Superintendent Gavin Thomas, president of the Police Superintendents Association of England and Wales ... said: One of the major concerns from our members is managing the register already, and its growing. He added that there is not enough room in prisons to jail all child sex offenders and called for discussion of alternatives: Should we be going down the criminal justice route or, based on a proper assessment, should we be going down the health route? At the moment I am not seeing alternative thinking on how we deal with this issue as it grows and grows and grows. The number of people being convicted of sexual offences has soared in recent times, partly due to high profile cases such as Jimmy Savile encouraging other abuse survivors to come forward. Of 86,200 people who are currently in jail, around 11,500 have been convicted of a sexual offence.