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Written question asked by Bob Spink (Conservative) on Monday, 27 February 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 8 March 2006. It was answered by Fiona Mactaggart (Labour) on Thursday, 9 March 2006 on behalf of the Home Office.

Child Protection

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his Answer of 13 February 2006, Official Report, column 1714W, if he will make it his policy (a) to ensure that records are maintained of offenders who are given a caution for possession of indecent photographs of children and (b) to prevent such offenders from working with children in the future; and if he will make a statement.
Answer

[holding answer 8 March 2006]: The Circular which sets out guidance on the Cautioning of Adult Offenders emphasises the importance of accurately recording cautions in order to avoid multiple cautioning and to ensure consistency. Cautions must be recorded on the local custody system as well as on national information systems and those given for a recordable offence must be entered on the Police National Computer.Under the current Association of Chief Police Officers General Rules for Criminal Weeding on Police Systems, a caution received for possession of indecent photographs of children should be removed after ten years provided there are no convictions on the record and no further cautions have been given. The Secretary of State for Education currently has the power (under s. 142 of the Education Act 2002) to make a direction barring or restricting a person from working in the education sector, whether or not a person has been convicted of an offence.The list of people subject to such a direction is called ““List 99””. The Secretary of State for Education recently announced that she would be introducing regulations to automatically enter on List 99 anyone who is convicted or cautioned for a sexual offence against a child. At present, convictions (but not cautions) relating to indecent photos of children under 16 constitute automatic barring offences for List 99. It has not yet been decided which offences will trigger automatic barring under the new Regulations, but the cautioning guidance will be changed as appropriate when the Regulations come into force.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
55465; 443 c1659-60W;443 c1659-60W
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Children Protection Vetting Sexual offences
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk