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Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (Controlled Activity and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 2010

My Lords, these orders have resulted from the rigorous work of Sir Roger Singleton. I notice that he has chosen a very appropriate title for his report: Drawing the Line. That really goes to the heart of what we should be doing—that is, drawing the line in the right place to ensure that we do as much as we possibly can to protect children and vulnerable adults, without putting an undue burden on conscientious employers, employees, volunteers and public agencies. On these Benches, we judge all these things on whether they are proportionate. Sir Roger made some very sensible recommendations, most of which the Government are now trying to implement. However, I notice that, although the Explanatory Memorandum indicates that there will be a considerable reduction in the number of people who will be affected by the need to register because of the changes to the frequency and intensity rules, there is no detailed assessment of the impact of those changes on the protection of children and vulnerable adults. Can the Minister say what the Government have looked into before implementing those recommendations? I share some of the concerns of the noble Baroness, Lady Verma, about overseas workers. Whenever this Committee has discussed orders to do with things that came out of the 2006 Act, we have always taken the opportunity to ask the Minister for an update on the Government’s negotiations with other countries about the sharing of information. I look forward to the Minister’s reply on that point. In another place, there was great concern about communication—not surprisingly, because every time you make a change, it adds further confusion. I compliment the Government on the Mythbusters document, which is a very good way of trying to counter some of the outrageous and inaccurate claims that have been made in the media. It is important that documents of that kind are very widely distributed and that very clear guidance is given to employers, potential employees and volunteers about what they have to do, particularly given the penalties that will result from not doing it. Three points came out of Sir Roger Singleton’s report which are not dealt with by these orders. I take the opportunity to probe the Minister a little on three of the recommendations about further work that Sir Roger made at the end of his report. First, he asked whether private medical practitioners should be looked into, as well as whether they should register. I think the Department of Health is taking the lead on looking into that. Can the Minister tell us what co-ordination is going on between her department and the Department of Health and who is being consulted on that matter? Secondly, how will the Government approach deciding whether there is any need for the controlled activity category to continue? This is another matter that Sir Roger raised. Will the Government ask Sir Roger to look into it further? It was beyond the remit of his original report, which is why he raised it at the end. Thirdly, he raised the issue of whether there will be a continued requirement for CRB checks. This brings me to some anecdotal information, which I can pass on to the Minister. In the past four days, I have met four people who work with children and vulnerable adults who have four concurrent CRB checks. One was a volunteer who runs a cadet force in a school. He has to have one CRB check for the school and another for the military for the same voluntary job. Then he works in another school, doing some coaching, so he needs another CRB check for that. Finally, he volunteers in an old people’s home, so he needs a fourth CRB check for that. This afternoon, I met a young teacher who works in two different schools and is on sabbatical from a third. He has three CRB checks for those three different schools and is a school governor in a fourth, so he has another one for that. People complain about how long it takes to get CRB checks back—indeed, I heard again today about surgeons who cannot carry on doing their work when they move from one hospital to another because their check has not come back—yet all that duplication is going on. What are the Government going to do to stop this waste of time and money? Until November, when the new registration scheme comes in, it is all we have. Clearly, checks could be done a lot quicker if there was not so much duplication. Finally, can the Minister tell us anything about another matter that the Government have asked Sir Roger Singleton to look into: the physical punishment of children in part-time learning situations? The Government have indicated that they expect him to report by the end of the month, but as far as I can see there will be no legislative opportunity for the Government to put his recommendations into operation straight away, as they said they would. Does the noble Baroness have any further information than she had the last time I asked her about this—which was nothing—on how the Government are going to approach that matter?