Summary and Background
3.The current system for vetting people who wish to work with children or vulnerable adults operates through employers obtaining criminal record certificates issued by the Criminal Records Bureau (“CRB disclosures”) for new job applicants. CRB disclosures give employers information about an individual’s criminal records history, which informs their assessments about the individual’s suitability to work with children or vulnerable adults.
4.There are also three separate lists of persons who are barred from working with children or, as the case may be, vulnerable adults. These lists operate under different legislation and with different criteria and procedures: List 99 (a list of those in respect of whom directions under section 142 of the Education Act 2002 have been made), the Protection of Children Act (POCA) List (maintained under the Protection of Children Act 1999) and the Protection of Vulnerable Adults (POVA) List (maintained under Part 7 of the Care Standards Act 2000). Disqualification orders made by a court (under Part 2 of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000) also bar individuals from working with children.
5.The Bichard Inquiry Report (June 2004), available from http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/b/bichard%20inquiry%20report.pdf, identified systemic failures in current vetting and barring systems. These included the following factors:
	inconsistent decisions were being made by employers on the basis of CRB disclosure information
	CRB disclosure information is only certain to be accurate on the day of issue
	there are inconsistencies between List 99, the POCA list and POVA list
	the current barring system is reactive to harmful behaviour rather than preventative
	there are inconsistencies between police authorities in the disclosure of police information
6.This Act provides the legislative framework for a new vetting and barring scheme for people who work with children and vulnerable adults. A public consultation for the new scheme, Making Safeguarding Everybody’s Business: A Post-Bichard Vetting Scheme (Ref: 1485-2005DOC-EN), ran from 5 April – 5 July 2005. This consultation paper and a summary of the responses to it can be found at www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations.
7.The purpose of the new scheme is to minimise the risk of harm posed to children and vulnerable adults by those that might seek to harm them through their work (paid or unpaid) (whether they fall into the category of “regulated activity”, see paragraphs 41 to 47, or “controlled activity”, see paragraphs 98 to 103; see also the glossary in Annex A for further explanation). It seeks to do this by barring unsuitable individuals not just on the basis of referrals but also at the earliest possible opportunity as part of a centralised vetting process that all those working closely with children and/or vulnerable adults will need to go through.