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Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2007

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2007. The noble Lord said: The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 allows ex-offenders not to disclose old, ““spent”” convictions in order to improve their employment opportunities. The exceptions order to the Act sets out categories of work where, for reasons of public safety, the Act does not apply; that is, prospective workers in these fields are not entitled to conceal convictions irrespective of whether they are spent. The Criminal Records Bureau, in these cases, is permitted to release information on convictions, again regardless of whether they are spent. Inclusion in the order does not mean that it is mandatory for employing organisations to carry out these checks—simply that they are able to do so. We have brought forward these latest amendments to keep the order current and to make sure that the needs of ex-offenders, employers and the general public remain balanced appropriately. The order was amended twice in 2006 and twice in the five years before that, but is being amended again to allow for pressing areas of high risk to children to be taken into account and to cover some other categories that have been proposed for inclusion. We intend to introduce a further order in due course to reflect the original recommendations in the Bichard inquiry and ensure that all posts involving working with children and vulnerable adults are subject to the disclosure regime. This will coincide with the implementation of provisions contained in the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act. In the mean time, we do not want to delay vital changes such as the inclusion of ContactPoint. We want to give protection as quickly as possible to children and vulnerable adults in respect of the employment categories set out in this order. Other amendments, not related to the Bichard reforms, include allowing checks for employees of the Gambling Commission—which will have law-enforcement responsibilities in respect of this industry—and strengthening the position of the Financial Services Authority so that it may consider any criminal offences. It may help if I go through the amendments that we are proposing as they appear in the draft order. We have updated the order to enable the finance industry and the Financial Services Authority to consider all spent offences that are committed by individuals falling within the order by deleting references to ““relevant”” offences. This brings them into line with the other provisions in the order by allowing the FSA to take all convictions into account. The following amendments have been included following the Bichard inquiry’s recommendations. Article 7 of this order makes a number of additions to the list to include: people in the Department for Education and Skills, the Office for Standards in Education, children’s services and skills in the government offices for the English regions working in sensitive posts relating to children or vulnerable adults; operators and users of ContactPoint, which is a database containing basic information about children in England aged up to 18, such as their name, date of birth, address, and contact details of parent or carer, GP practice, educational setting, health visitor, and so on; persons giving advice to children over the telephone or other form of electronic communication including the internet and mobile telephone text messaging; and the chairman, members, and members of staff of the Independent Barring Board. The Independent Barring Board has not yet been established at the date of coming into force of this order, but this exception will apply to prospective appointments to the board. The first provision, relating to staff in the Department for Education and Skills, was drafted before recent changes in Whitehall. We will take the necessary action to ensure that it applies to the relevant people, although they will in future be working in new departments. Several other changes are also being made in the order. They will affect: staff working within the Public Guardianship Office with access to data relating to children and vulnerable adults; the Commissioner for Older People in Wales, his deputy, and any person appointed by the commissioner to assist him or authorised to discharge his functions on his behalf. This is a new position which has been created under the Commissioner for Older People (Wales) Act 2006; the commissioners for the Gambling Commission and any office or employment in their service. This is in accordance with the power granted to them under the Gambling Act 2005; individuals seeking authorisation from the Secretary of State at the Home Department to become authorised search officers. This was a ministerial commitment given during the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act 2006; and anyone in employment where normal duties involve caring for, training, supervising, or being solely in charge of, persons aged under 18 serving in the Armed Forces and anyone in employment where normal duties include supervising personnel aged under 18. This provision follows the recommendation made by the Deepcut review in March 2006. We believe that these amendments are necessary in order to maintain a proper balance between the needs of vulnerable groups for protection, the necessity of maintaining the integrity of our regulatory and public bodies and the benefit to society of rehabilitating ex-offenders through employment. I commend the order to the Committee. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2007. 20th Report from the Statutory Instruments Committee.—(Lord Evans of Temple Guiting.)