Clause 63
Policing and Crime Bill
6:45 pm
Alan Campbell (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Tynemouth, Labour)
I am grateful to both the hon. Member for Bury St. Edmunds and my hon. Friend the Member for Northampton, North not simply for raising the issue, but for the way in which they did so. We have a shared concern. These are important questions. It is important to get the right system in place to identify and exclude people who are at risk. We also need to give confidence to people working in schools and parents that the system is robust. That also helps to keep this as a high priority.
The hon. Gentleman raised the issue of sunsetting. We have said that we will phase in the requirements to check over a period of time, but I can assure him that this will be done on a risk basis. So the person he identifies who has never been checked and yet could be a paedophile would be placed in a very early stage in that period. While in theory there may be a short period, I can assure him that it will be the shortest period possible.
My hon. Friend raised the issue of local authority members visiting schools. To some extent it rather depends on the visit whether the local authority member does any work for the school. If they do, they will be checked. Again, we will be phasing in over a period of time. I will certainly take away the points that she raises. There are a number of people in elected positions who will fairly regularly go into schools in their area. Indeed, it is important that we can give her and the Committee the reassurance that she seeks.