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Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill [HL]

My Lords, my noble friend has rightly raised the issue of vexatious and malicious allegations masquerading as references of information to the Independent Barring Board. He raised the point both at Second Reading and in Grand Committee. We have given it a good deal of consideration and agree that it is important to limit the exemption from claims for damages in the case of vexatious and malicious allegations. We are therefore very glad that he has come forward with these amendments which refine the previous provisions made by the Bill. His new subsection (2) of Clause 43 would remove protection from damages claims in cases where the provider of the information knew that the information was untrue, and was either the originator of the information or caused another to be the originator of the information. We believe that it is important to limit the exception to these cases. We do not want to allow claims for damages to be made in cases where referring bodies are under a duty to provide information which they had no hand in creating and the content of which they could not control. But we see no reason why referring bodies should be protected from defamation claims in circumstances where they deliberately create defamatory material which they know to be untrue for the purpose of referring it to the IBB. We entirely agree with my noble friend in this regard. We understand the impact that allegations to the IBB will have on the personal and professional reputations of those affected, and we do not want allegations of untrue information to blight people’s lives. On the other hand, we do not want to reduce the flow of information that is true, or genuinely believed to be true, because this information forms the basis on which the IBB can consider whether to include a person in the list. We are therefore very happy to support the amendments of my noble friend, as we believe that they address both these points. They give a legitimate exemption from claims for damages, but they do not impede the proper flow of information to the IBB. On that basis, we are content to accept the amendments of my noble friend.