Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill [HL]

The noble Baroness has asked me a large number of questions. I am not sure, because I have not been able to note them all down, that I will answer them all, but I will look very carefully at what she said in Hansard and write to her afterwards to deal with all the issues that she raised. On the key issue of concern to the noble Baroness, which is how the new scheme will work with proposed accreditation arrangements in Northern Ireland, I believe that I can meet the concerns that she raised. The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland intends to introduce a voluntary system of accreditation for non-regulated organisations that work with children and young people in Northern Ireland. The department intends to issue proposals for consultation within the next few months. Accreditation proposals as currently envisaged are much wider than the vetting of employees and volunteers and will require organisations to provide evidence of good child protection policies and procedures before accredited status will be awarded. I think that that was the noble Baroness’s main concern. The two other concerns I noted were the role of the IBB in Northern Ireland and the negative resolution procedure. The IBB will appoint staff whose combined expertise will cover all of the IBB’s functions. Given that the IBB’s functions extend to Northern Ireland, it follows that in appointing its staff the IBB will ensure that it has access to the appropriate expertise in the particular needs of Northern Ireland. Nothing in the Bill constrains the ability of the IBB to appoint staff with such expertise and we would expect it to do so. There is no need to constrain the operation of the IBB in primary legislation in order to respond to the particular requirements of Northern Ireland because we believe that the board is under a duty to do so, anyway. The Secretary of State will consult widely on the appointment of the chairman and members of the IBB, and that consultation will of course include Northern Ireland Ministers and other stakeholders. The IBB must also publish an annual report on its functions, which will include its activities in relation to Northern Ireland. On the negative resolution procedure, we believe that this will give the flexibility needed to ensure that Northern Ireland people have the same right to protection as their counterparts in the rest of the United Kingdom, while ensuring that their particular circumstances are fully reflected. The strength of the negative resolution procedure is that it will ensure that Northern Ireland adopts the principles and foundations of the scheme, but is able to adapt its technical and operational requirements to reflect local needs. The Government will consult on these aspects of the order, and this will include consideration of the equality obligations outlined in Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. The section requires public authorities to have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity and the desirability of promoting good relations. These duties are designed in particular to ensure that equality issues are integral to the whole range of public policy decision-making in Northern Ireland. Public authorities are required to submit equality schemes to the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland and to consult widely on and screen all policies, functions and duties as they relate to Northern Ireland, and to carry out equality impact assessments of their policies in certain circumstances. In the light of those requirements for consultation, which we will honour as we draw up the order, we believe that the negative resolution procedure is appropriate to meet the needs of the Province.