New Clause 1
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill [Lords]
3:15 pm
Parmjit Dhanda (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Children, Young People and Families), Department for Education and Skills; Gloucester, Labour)
I shall try to give the full response that the hon. Lady seeks. New clause 1 would impose a duty on the Secretary of State to issue guidance to police forces and local authorities on sharing information for the purposes of safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. It is an important area of practice, but it is covered in existing guidance.
“Working Together to Safeguard Children” explains the circumstances in which information needs to be shared in the course of action being taken to safeguard children. “Information sharing: practitioner’s guide” provides practitioners across all children’s services with clear guidance on when and how they can share information legally and professionally. The two guidance documents were published in April 2006, and together they provide an effective framework for sharing information between local authorities, police forces, health organisations and others.
Significant progress has also been made on implementing the recommendations aimed at improving police management of information contained in the Bichard report. Regular progress reports have been provided to Parliament. Guidance to the police on information management and sharing was issued in March under the code of practice on police information management. Police and local authorities will also have regard to the guidance in “Working Together to Safeguard Children”.
Under the circumstances, we do not believe that further guidance is required at present. I therefore ask the hon. Lady to withdraw the motion.