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Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill [HL]

On secondments, we entirely share the objective of the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe, that people with relevant experience should be able to participate in the board’s work, even if it means taking leave from their job. I am advised that, for legal reasons, there cannot be formal secondments to the IBB because those who serve on it are formally taking up an office. But it would be possible for those in existing employment to take, for example, special leave to serve on the IBB, with an understanding that they would return to that employment afterwards. I believe that that would have the same effect as the noble Baroness’s objective. The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, asked whether the appointments procedure for members of the IBB would be transparent. Yes, it will be a fair and open competition, and all posts will be advertised. She also asked whether IBB decisions would be final and not overturned by Ministers. I say to the Committee with great feeling that one of the primary purposes of this reform is that Ministers should not be engaged in any way at all in the taking of those decisions. There is nothing that Ministers want less than to be engaged in an appeal role in respect of any of those decisions. We would not have set up all this procedure just to end up where we started. As the Bill makes clear, appeals from the IBB will be to the Care Standards Tribunal. Those decisions will be final, subject to any judicial review proceedings. There will be no role for Ministers whatever over and above the role of the Secretary of State in giving appropriate guidance and support, including financial resources to the IBB. On whether the IBB will have advisory groups, it will be expected to have an expert staff and to be able to draw on staff who can give expertise in areas where such experts are not employed directly. It will be entirely up to the IBB to seek advice as necessary in conducting its work. I cannot seek to stipulate in detail precisely how it will go about that. We would not seek to do so in advance of the IBB being appointed and working out the best way to go about its work. We will certainly seek to achieve the objective that the noble Baroness set out. That point applies also to a code of practice. We would expect the IBB to proceed in a transparent way. It will want to establish the criteria and processes by which it operates in discussion with the sectors with an interest in its work. We believe that that will lead to appropriate publication of the processes that it uses, but I would not want specifically to commit the IBB to publishing something called a ““code of practice””. I hope that that meets the points that the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, raised.