---

Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill [HL]

My Lords, on that latter point I speak from deep memory from our consideration of this precise issue last time, so I may need to follow this up with a letter to the noble Baroness. As I recall it, all such notifications are sent by appropriate recorded delivery, for which a signature is required. Therefore, although we cannot absolutely guarantee that documentation will be taken in, this gives reasonable assurance that the document will be properly received or returned to sender. If there has been any update on that position in the last few months, I will let the noble Baroness know. It is probably deeply dangerous for me to speak from memory in giving her a direct response to that. On foreign offences and inclusion on foreign barred lists, a point also raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe, I should stress that the current barring schemes—POCA, POVA and List 99—are based on employer referrals and can take account of any information that they receive, including foreign offences, if notified by the UK police of allegations of behaviour abroad. I am advised that there has been a case where an English employer has referred an individual to the POCA scheme as a result of allegations of behaviour when abroad while working for the employer and that that has resulted in a bar. We envisage the provisions for specifying foreign barred lists as prescribed criteria under the new scheme as taking account of future developments in other countries. We are aware of the operation of barred lists in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada. The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, referred to our fellow European states and the new accession countries. She asked whether we will be in communication with them. We will certainly continue to be in communication with them—whether for the purposes that she specified: that they might have things to learn from us; or for the purposes of us being able better to secure information from them about the history of individuals as they present themselves to work with employers in the United Kingdom. I can give those assurances and I will cover any other matters in correspondence. On Question, Motion agreed to.