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Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, Part 8 of the Bill is headed "Miscellaneous" and, my goodness, isn’t it just? My noble friend and I will be boxing and coxing on its various clauses and, looking at the Marshalled List, the absence thereof in one particular respect. I start with this rather curious group of amendments. The first of the amendments tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, seems to rest on what I suspect is a misunderstanding of the legislation. I understood from my reading of the Bill that the Independent Safeguarding Authority, formerly the Independent Barring Board, is only to be empowered to inform employers, not to be given a duty so to do. This, we would of course support. I hope that the Minister can confirm that our understanding of the Bill is correct. There are occasions where the risk is so great that action must be taken quickly to protect any potential victims. However, we surely all agree that spurious allegations must not be allowed to damage a person’s reputation—for example, the student to whom the noble Baroness referred. In essence, if the ISA feels that the allegations that it is investigating are not of sufficient weight as to require immediate notification, it should have the discretion to withhold that information until the accused has had the opportunity to defend themselves and a final decision has been reached. I should like to hear from the Minister why the Government feel these provisions to be necessary. As a general rule, legislation should not be duplicated unnecessarily and the responsibility for making sure that those who need to know do know should be clear and consistent. I am of course referring to the original Act.