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Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill [HL]

My Lords, I absolutely agree with the later comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe. This is a very complex Bill and it is important that everybody understands it as well as possible, particularly those who are subject to its measures. We welcome Amendments Nos. 196 and 197, which make it clear that no one under 18 will be barred from working with children or vulnerable adults without the right to make representation. Children and young people who commit offences, particularly of a sexual nature, need to have their risks assessed in a different way from adults. I pay tribute to my honourable friend, the Member for Mid Dorset and Poole North, Annette Brooke MP, for her relentless pursuit of this issue. We know that as many as 16 per cent of children may have been abused. They often go on to abuse in their turn, thus perpetuating a terrible cycle of abuse. Research shows that targeted interventions can be highly effective in reducing risk, even for those children and young people who are at higher risk of continuing harmful behaviours. We know that juveniles commit about a quarter of all sexual offences and that there is clear evidence that many of them have suffered abuse or trauma themselves. Those who go along the criminal justice route are unlikely to have their needs adequately assessed, let alone addressed and treated. I therefore hope that the addition of representation in this legislation will mean that children who display sexually harmful behaviour will have their situations addressed on a case-by-case basis and have the appropriate services provided. I thank the Minister for Amendments Nos. 173 to 177 and 181 to 186, which align the treatment of pornography with barring people from working with children and vulnerable adults, in response to inconsistencies to which I drew attention when the Bill went through your Lordships’ House. I also welcome Amendments Nos. 192, 193 and 195, which allow the IBB in the future to automatically bar someone who is included on a specified barred list from another country. The issue of foreign workers exercised us all in the light of the fact that currently there are no equivalent foreign barred lists, and provision for screening is very patchy. However, we are now establishing a piece of legislation which we all hope will work very well. I ask the Minister, if he is in consultation with his counterparts in other countries—in particular our partners in Europe and especially the new accession countries—to share the experiences which the Government will gain from the operation of this Bill. I am sure that we would like to help other countries to get up to our standard, should the Bill turn out to work as well in practice as we all hope it will, since it will in the end also help us when their nationals come to work here with our children and vulnerable adults. Finally, on Amendment No. 199, which is on the duty of the court to inform somebody that he is barred, will the Minister confirm that guidance will specify that the court and the IBB—whoever is responsible for telling a person from what he is barred—also has a duty to ensure that the information has been received and is not lying unopened on some doormat at an address at which the person has not lived for years? I am still receiving mail for people who have not lived at my London address for the past six years. Can he give me that assurance?