Category Archives: Parliamentary Affairs

Changes to Sex Offenders Register

In the News, Key Cases, Ministerial Announcements, Sex Offender profiles, , , , ,

The Government response to the Supreme Court ruling about the human rights of sex offenders is to make the minimum possible changes to the law in order to comply with the ruling.  These are summarised below. Continue reading Changes to Sex Offenders Register →

Judicial review of unlawful child restraint

Children, Justice, Reviews, Vulnerable Adults,

The Children’s Rights Alliance for England (Crae) has applied for a judicial review of the refusal by the justice secretary, Ken Clarke, to identify and contact children who may have been unlawfully restrained in privately run secure training centres.  

Under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act,  all prison and probation officers would have been checked and monitored for their ongoing suitablity for the role as prisoners and people on probation would have been considered as being ‘vulnerable  adults’.  It remains to be clarified whether this promised level of protection will be compromised under the halving of the numbers defined as doing ‘regulated activity’ under the Protection of Freedoms Bill. Continue reading Judicial review of unlawful child restraint →

Reduced CRB regime announced

Education, Employers, Faith, Health, In the News, Justice, Ministerial Announcements, Parliamentary Affairs, Reviews, Social Care, Sport & Leisure, , , , , , ,
Details of the new Criminal Records regime will be announced today as part of the all encompassing Protection of Freedoms Bill.  Points that are likely to emerge  when it is published are:
  •  The need for checks to be drastically reduced to ‘common sense’ levels -now it will only apply to those who have the most close and regular contact with children or vulnerable adults, such as professional childcare workers or teachers.  The total number who will need to undergo background checks will halve to around 4.5million, although who this includes does not appear to have been defined judging from the  interview given by Nick Clegg his morning on BBC.  
  • Continual updating and portability will be enabled so that teachers and care home workers who do require checks will have their records constantly updated.  This is seen as a key benefit and was already planned in by CRB.
  • The content of CRBs will be reviewed  – for instance the changes will also drastically cut the use of ‘soft intelligence’ when examining a person’s history. Unproven allegations will only be placed on a person’s record if a Chief Constable believes they are true.
  • Checks that are unnecessary and which breach an employee’s privacy could be referred to the data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner, and any employer found knowingly to have requested an unlawful check could face fines running to thousands of pounds.  This will prevent the over zealous use of CRBs such as the school in Warrington that would not be allowed into the premises to see their children.
  • the Independent Safeguarding Authority will be merged with the Criminal Records Bureau. Continue reading Reduced CRB regime announced →

CRB & ISA to merge into new body

Background to Safeguarding, Education, Faith, Health, In the News, Justice, Key Sectors, Ministerial Announcements, Reviews, Social Care, Sport & Leisure, , , , , , , , ,

An article in the Telegraph pre-empts the announcement about the results of the criminal records regime review by Sunita Mason and the parallel one into the Vetting & Barring Scheme. Headline: “An anti-paedophile vetting scheme that would have involved nine million adults will be ripped up next week in a major reworking of how background checks are conducted.” Continue reading CRB & ISA to merge into new body →

Lords debate exploitation of children

Children, In the News, Justice, Parliamentary Affairs, Sex Offender profiles, , , , ,

The Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Tim Stevens, raised five areas of concern about children being groomed for sexual exploitation. His question in the House of Lords was  what steps are being taken to ensure the safety of children, especially of children in the care of local authorities, from being groomed for sexual exploitation. Continue reading Lords debate exploitation of children →

Justice quangos spared cull

Justice, Parliamentary Affairs, Reviews, , , ,

Ministers have withdrawn 18 bodies from the Public Bodies Bill, which contains the list of  192 bodies to be abolished or scrapped and the 118 to be merged.  The Parole Board, the Criminal Cases Review Commission and the Surveillance Commissioners have been withdrawn along with bodies that select judges, draw up sentencing guidelines and investigate miscarriages of justice in England and Wales.

The government amendment of  the Public Bodies Bill followed concerns raised in the House of Lords, after peers expressed fears that the proposed cull could put the independence of the judiciary at risk.  Liberal Democrat peer Lord Goodhart welcomed the change of heart:

“I thought a lot of the proposals in the bill were wrong but I thought this was the worst of them, because it is an absolutely essential part of our constitution now that it should be a role of an independent body to select the judicial appointments,” he said.

BBC news report

Review of ‘red tape’ in Sport

Reviews

Minister for Sport and the OIympics Hugh Robertson announced a review to cut red-tape and bureaucracy that hits sports clubs and holds back participation.  It will be conducted by The Central Council of Physical Recreation (CCPR) and will look at a number of areas including licensing regulations, planning rules affecting sports facilities,  and the impact of safeguarding requirements on sports volunteering.

Sunita Mason’s 2009 report

Background to Safeguarding, Key Cases, Reviews, , ,

Sunita Mason was appointed the Independent Advisor for Criminality Information Management in September 2009 to consider issues arising as a result of the ‘five constables’ case and  increasing public debate on the use of personal information.  

Her report A Balanced Approach  looked at how government agencies share information to protect the public as well as the retention and use of criminal record information held by the police on the Police National Computer (PNC).

Drawing the Line – Sir Roger Singleton’s Review

Background to Safeguarding, In the News, Reviews, ,

Folowing the media attention on the ‘author’s story’, Sir Roger Singleton was invited to review aspects of the definition of Regulated Activity and its impact on the scope of the Vetting & Barring Scheme. His recommendations in Drawing the Line Dec 09 reduced the number of people who would need to be members of the scheme to 9 million