Regulated Activity Providers Section 6: Regulated activity providers
48.This section defines “regulated activity provider” for the purpose of the Act, on whom a number of obligations are imposed by its other provisions. A regulated activity provider is an individual or organisation responsible for the management or control of regulated activity, who makes arrangements for a person to engage in that activity. The effect of subsection (2)(b) is that regulated activity providers will be those with the ultimate responsibility for the regulated activity: not every individual in the management chain will be responsible for making the check of a person’s status. There is no need for a contract to be in place for an individual or body to be a regulated activity provider, and the definition applies to both paid and unpaid work. A person who simply uses services provided by another (for example, a nanny who places a child in the care of a supermarket crèche) will not be a regulated activity provider because he will have no responsibility for the management or control of the regulated activity. But the supermarket in this case will be a regulated activity provider.
49.Subsection (3) provides that a person is a regulated activity provider if section 53(4) so provides. Section 53(4) applies where a person arranges for another to foster a child as a private foster parent and has power to terminate the arrangements. The arranger in this case is a regulated activity provider even if he would not otherwise be (i.e. because he does not have control or management of the activity). Subsection (4) states that those with responsibility for adult placement schemes will also be regulated activity providers.
50.Subsection (5) provides that a person who makes arrangements for another to engage in regulated activity for his own benefit, or for a child or vulnerable adult who is a member of his family or is a friend of his (construed in accordance with section 58), is not a “regulated activity provider”. So, for example, a parent who employs a nanny to look after his child will not be a regulated activity provider for the purposes of the Act. This means that certain provisions of the Act will not apply to the parent. For example, although parents will be able to apply for vetting information about potential nannies they will not commit a criminal offence by failing to check a nanny’s status or by failing to ensure that a nanny is subject to monitoring.
51.Subsection (8) provides that a person who appoints, or participates in the appointment of, a person to a position referred to in that subsection is not a regulated activity provider merely by reason of that fact. So, for example, those who elect the trustees of a children’s charity will not be regulated activity providers for the purpose of the Act or subject to the obligations imposed on regulated activity providers.
52.Subsection (10) provides that if a regulated activity provider is an unincorporated association any requirement or liability under the Act will be the liability of the person responsible for the management and control of the association or, if there is more than one such person, all of them jointly and severally.