Offender Management Bill

moved Amendment No. 107: 107: After Clause 15, insert the following new Clause— ““Establishments (1) Schedule 4 to the Safeguarding Vulnerable GroupsAct 2006 (c. 47) (regulated activity: general) is amended as follows. (2) After paragraph 3(1)(g) there is inserted— ““(h) contracted-out prisons””.”” The noble Lord said: The amendment stands in my name and that of my noble friends Lady Linklater and Lord Wallace of Saltaire. We discussed the power of search under Clauses 13, 14 and 15. Amendment No. 107 would add further safeguards in relation to search. I assure the Minister that this is a probing amendment. We were assisted in its drafting by the Standing Committee for Youth Justice. We are concerned that a gap remains in the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 in relation to adult prisons that children may enter as visitors. As the Minister in the other place highlighted, the Act already applies to those working in institutions which detain children. He said: "““I hope that the Committee will be reassured byparagraph (3)(1) to schedule 4 of the 2006 Act, which lists the types of establishments to which the Act’s safeguards apply. Included on the list in sub-paragraph (d) is""‘an institution which is exclusively or mainly for the detention of children’.""That will mean that employees of all prisons, young offenders institutions and secure training centres, whether publicly or privately run, will be covered. I hope that the Committeefinds that clarification helpful, particularly given the scope of clauses 11 to 15, all of which can at least in theory apply to institutions in which children are held””.—[Official Report, Commons Offender Management Bill Public Bill Committee, 23/1/07; col. 187.]" We would like an assurance from the Government that those carrying out personal searches of child visitors to adult prisons are appropriately vetted. I beg to move.