New Clause 4
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill [Lords]
3:45 pm
Maria Miller (Shadow Minister (Education), Education; Basingstoke, Conservative)
The Minister will know, from reading all the briefing documents on the Bill, that this issue is its Achilles heel. Perhaps some of his reactions to the new clause are due to his realising that he needs to think more about the topic. The stakeholders to whom he has referred have clearly identified issues such as frequency, what is meant by “occasional”, and the lack of definition. My hon. Friends and Liberal Democrat Members have time and again pointed out those issues, which the Government choose to brush aside. That is a shame.
The Minister has contradicted himself several times. The Health Minister has talked about allowing front-line professionals their judgment; if the Minister cares to refer to Hansard he will see that in Tuesday’s debate he talked about the problems of the issue of frequency and the fact that there is a need to look further at the issue. I am heartened by his saying that he will return to the matter on Report. I will hold him to that promise, because the Government are being more than a little vague. In the interest of time, however, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion.