We accept the findings of Robert Francis QC’s public inquiry, Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry, February 2013, that at every level of the healthcare system, there was a failure to put the needs and safety of patients first, and to act on the warning signs that there were significant problems at the Trust.

However, we believe that the Trust Board were ultimately accountable for the poor standards of care delivered under their management. As the Inquiry stated, “the Trust prioritised its finances and its Foundation Trust application over its quality of care”.

On November 19, the Government published its full response to the Inquiry, Hard Truths: the Journey to Putting Patients First, November 2013. A copy has already been placed in the Library. The measures set out in this will together put in place the action needed to revitalise the culture of the National Health Service around a consistent focus on the needs of the patients it serves.

This includes:

— A robust inspection regime, with physical inspection by experts, considering whether services are safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs and well-led;

— A new failure regime based on quality as well as finance, which will allow much swifter intervention to put things right;

— Monthly transparency on staffing levels, falls, pressure sores, complaints and other key indicators which will provide a smoke alarm locally and nationally, if things are not right;

— A new criminal offence of providing certain types of false or misleading information and a new statutory duty of candour which will set clear expectations around openness and honesty;

— A fit and proper persons test for Board directors, so that those responsible for failures in care are prevented from working elsewhere in the system; and

— Where breaches of the new fundamental standards take place, the Care Quality Commission will ultimately have the powers to prosecute and there will be much stronger accountability for managers—for quality as well as finance.

The Department for Education fully supports the Home Office's ‘This is Abuse’ campaign and has promoted information about it by re-tweeting the campaign links to our 95,000 followers on Twitter and adding the link to our Facebook page (15,250 followers).

We have also added details about the campaign in the resources for teachers section on our dedicated Times Educational Supplement page¹.

The Department's Sex and Relationships Education guidance advises schools to draw on the up-to-date advice produced by experts including the Personal, Social Health and Economic (PSHE) Association. We provide grant funding of £100,000 to the PSHE Association to help schools develop curricula, improve staff training, and promote the teaching of consent. The PSHE Association contributed to the development of the discussion guide supporting the campaign and circulated information on the campaign to its list of over 6,500 PSHE professionals.

We have also provided information on the campaign to headteacher and teacher unions. Along with ministerial colleagues from the Home Office and the Department for International Development and the Minister for Schools, I will be meeting these union representatives to discuss how best to get information and resources about safeguarding issues like this to the right people.¹ http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/This-is-Abuse-Discussion -Guide-6379575/

The Department for Education fully supports the Home Office's ‘This is Abuse’ campaign and has promoted information about it by re-tweeting the campaign links to our 95,000 followers on Twitter and adding the link to our Facebook page (15,250 followers).

We have also added details about the campaign in the resources for teachers section on our dedicated Times Educational Supplement page¹.

The Department's Sex and Relationships Education guidance advises schools to draw on the up-to-date advice produced by experts including the Personal, Social Health and Economic (PSHE) Association. We provide grant funding of £100,000 to the PSHE Association to help schools develop curricula, improve staff training, and promote the teaching of consent. The PSHE Association contributed to the development of the discussion guide supporting the campaign and circulated information on the campaign to its list of over 6,500 PSHE professionals.

We have also provided information on the campaign to headteacher and teacher unions. Along with ministerial colleagues from the Home Office and the Department for International Development and the Minister for Schools, I will be meeting these union representatives to discuss how best to get information and resources about safeguarding issues like this to the right people.¹ http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/This-is-Abuse-Discussion -Guide-6379575/

The Government is committed to protecting people from abuse and neglect. Our policy objective is to prevent and reduce the risk of harm to adults with care and support needs from abuse, neglect or other types of exploitation, while supporting them to maintain control over their lives and to make informed choices without coercion.

We are strengthening the Care Quality Commission's (CQCs) regulatory function. The new chief inspector of Adult Social Care, Andrea Sutcliffe, will have widespread powers to take firm action on poor care and to hold both councils and providers to account for the quality of services, including the possibility of prosecution. The Care Bill will also give the CQC the power to publish performance ratings on the quality of social care provision, which will give the public a clear and simple way of determining which providers are offering the best services.

Since 2010, all councils with adult social services responsibilities have been required to submit Abuse of Vulnerable Adults returns to the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). This is a mandatory data collection, which records safeguarding activity relating to vulnerable adults aged 18 and over in England and includes information about the volume of safeguarding activity taking place, the characteristics of adults who may be at risk of harm and the locations in which alleged abuse has taken place. It is intended to provide information which can assist stakeholders in recognising and preventing future harm. The most recent report, which presents provisional data for 2012-13, is available on the HSCIC website at:

www.hscic.gov.uk/pubs/abuseva1213prov

Measures need to be in place locally to protect those who may not be able to protect themselves. The Care Bill places the establishment of Safeguarding Adults Boards on a statutory footing, to ensure that local

authorities, the NHS and police, together with any other agency that may be appropriate, work together to develop and implement adult safeguarding strategies.

The Bill also places Safeguarding Adults Reviews on a statutory footing for the first time. If abuse or neglect does take place, it is essential that the relevant professionals and organisations involved in the case improve future practice and minimise the possibility of it happening again. Conducting safeguarding adult reviews in serious cases will help ensure lessons are learned and applied and better equip local agencies with care and support functions to prevent abuse and to respond should it occur.

The Government is committed to protecting people from abuse and neglect. Our policy objective is to prevent and reduce the risk of harm to adults with care and support needs from abuse, neglect or other types of exploitation, while supporting them to maintain control over their lives and to make informed choices without coercion.

We are strengthening the Care Quality Commission's (CQCs) regulatory function. The new chief inspector of Adult Social Care, Andrea Sutcliffe, will have widespread powers to take firm action on poor care and to hold both councils and providers to account for the quality of services, including the possibility of prosecution. The Care Bill will also give the CQC the power to publish performance ratings on the quality of social care provision, which will give the public a clear and simple way of determining which providers are offering the best services.

Since 2010, all councils with adult social services responsibilities have been required to submit Abuse of Vulnerable Adults returns to the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). This is a mandatory data collection, which records safeguarding activity relating to vulnerable adults aged 18 and over in England and includes information about the volume of safeguarding activity taking place, the characteristics of adults who may be at risk of harm and the locations in which alleged abuse has taken place. It is intended to provide information which can assist stakeholders in recognising and preventing future harm. The most recent report, which presents provisional data for 2012-13, is available on the HSCIC website at:

www.hscic.gov.uk/pubs/abuseva1213prov

Measures need to be in place locally to protect those who may not be able to protect themselves. The Care Bill places the establishment of Safeguarding Adults Boards on a statutory footing, to ensure that local

authorities, the NHS and police, together with any other agency that may be appropriate, work together to develop and implement adult safeguarding strategies.

The Bill also places Safeguarding Adults Reviews on a statutory footing for the first time. If abuse or neglect does take place, it is essential that the relevant professionals and organisations involved in the case improve future practice and minimise the possibility of it happening again. Conducting safeguarding adult reviews in serious cases will help ensure lessons are learned and applied and better equip local agencies with care and support functions to prevent abuse and to respond should it occur.

The Government is committed to protecting people from abuse and neglect. Our policy objective is to prevent and reduce the risk of harm to adults with care and support needs from abuse, neglect or other types of exploitation, while supporting them to maintain control over their lives and to make informed choices without coercion.

We are strengthening the Care Quality Commission's (CQCs) regulatory function. The new chief inspector of Adult Social Care, Andrea Sutcliffe, will have widespread powers to take firm action on poor care and to hold both councils and providers to account for the quality of services, including the possibility of prosecution. The Care Bill will also give the CQC the power to publish performance ratings on the quality of social care provision, which will give the public a clear and simple way of determining which providers are offering the best services.

Since 2010, all councils with adult social services responsibilities have been required to submit Abuse of Vulnerable Adults returns to the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). This is a mandatory data collection, which records safeguarding activity relating to vulnerable adults aged 18 and over in England and includes information about the volume of safeguarding activity taking place, the characteristics of adults who may be at risk of harm and the locations in which alleged abuse has taken place. It is intended to provide information which can assist stakeholders in recognising and preventing future harm. The most recent report, which presents provisional data for 2012-13, is available on the HSCIC website at:

www.hscic.gov.uk/pubs/abuseva1213prov

Measures need to be in place locally to protect those who may not be able to protect themselves. The Care Bill places the establishment of Safeguarding Adults Boards on a statutory footing, to ensure that local

authorities, the NHS and police, together with any other agency that may be appropriate, work together to develop and implement adult safeguarding strategies.

The Bill also places Safeguarding Adults Reviews on a statutory footing for the first time. If abuse or neglect does take place, it is essential that the relevant professionals and organisations involved in the case improve future practice and minimise the possibility of it happening again. Conducting safeguarding adult reviews in serious cases will help ensure lessons are learned and applied and better equip local agencies with care and support functions to prevent abuse and to respond should it occur.

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is designed to help employers make safer, more informed recruitment decisions. It also prevents unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups through its criminal record checking and barring functions. Under current legislation, individuals employing people directly are not entitled to ask for a standard or enhanced DBS check about the carers they hire. The Government is aware that measures need to be put in place to ensure the safety of individuals who employ carers directly.

Self-employed individuals could obtain a DBS check by registering with an agency under which they would then be contracted, or by ‘porting’ their DBS certificate from other employment or voluntary work.

Responsibility for the legislation which defines whether individuals are able to request a person to reveal their full criminal history, rests with the Secretary of State for the Home Department, the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May).

In its final report from January 2005, the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur concluded that:

“While the Commission did not find a systematic or a widespread pattern to violations committed by rebels, it nevertheless found credible evidence that members of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) are responsible for serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law which may amount to war crimes. In particular, these violations include cases of murder of civilians and pillage.”

These allegations were subsequently investigated by the International Criminal Court, and cases were brought by the prosecutor against a number of individuals, including former commanders in the JEM. The Court decided not to proceed with one of these cases, but another still remains before the Court.

The JEM continues to carry out military activities in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan, and holds some defectors from the movement as prisoners. While there are reports of activities by the movement that could be contrary to international law, for example attacks on civilians or on peacekeepers, it is difficult to ensure independent investigation of such allegations and so to attribute responsibility for attacks to particular armed groups.

I have not had any discussions with the Secretary of State for Education on making reporting of suspected child abuse mandatory for schools. The Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mr Timpson) told the House on 11 November that the relevant statutory guidance is clear: if anyone working with children, including in schools, has concern about a child’s welfare, safety or care, they should report that to the appropriate authority.

What recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on making reporting of suspected child abuse mandatory for schools.