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Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill [HL]

My Lords, I will be brief. I thank the Minister for his response to my Amendment No. 7. I entirely accept what he says, and I am extremely pleased with the government amendments, which the Minister has laid before the House today, on appeals on findings of fact. I feel that we have made real progress on this part of the Bill, and I am grateful to the Minister for that. I am also grateful to the Minister for allowing me to set out our concerns about employment law and employer versus employee, and to ask some of the questions that I thought about in response to some of the statements that the Minister made quite openly and quite rightly in our debates in Grand Committee. I think it is important to ensure that, during our consideration of the Bill, we are as clear as possible about the relationship between employer and employee and whether an individual is on a barred list or is undertaking a regulated or unregulated activity. At the end of the day, the employer and the employee need certainty, and our research on the issue between Grand Committee and today’s debate, as well as the Minister’s response, have contributed to that certainty. On that basis, and with pleasure, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendments Nos. 8 and 9 not moved.]