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Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill [Lords]

I broadly welcome the Government’s amendments, which deal with the issues that we discussed in Committee, especially our debate about NHS employees and whether people working under contract would be subject to the Bill. The clarification is very welcome. I shall address amendments Nos. 254 and 255 together, amendments Nos. 256 and 257 together, and then comment on amendment No. 201. All those amendments have similar objectives and address the now thorny issue of the word ““inadvertent””. I know that the debate earlier got rather over-excited, and the Minister was not keen to respond to my intervention. I hope that he will now respond with slightly better grace to what is intended to be a constructive addition to the debate. We are still not happy that the points that we made in Committee have been adequately addressed. Amendments Nos. 254 and 255 seek to address the same points that the Conservatives seek to address through amendment No. 201. We are trying to restrict the offence of a barred person engaging in a regulated activity to situations in which there is an intention to mislead. The hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) has clearly laid out the concerns, including the point that it is difficult to prove a negative. We think that our wording is slightly better than that of the Conservatives, but if they push their amendment to a Division, we will support it because we are trying to tackle the same issue. I hope that the Government will accept the points that we are making and table an amendment at a later stage.