Lib Dems campaign on criminal records bureau chaos

12.00.00am GMT Thu 7th Nov 2002

Liberal Democrat Parliamentarians are continuing their campaign to highlight the chaos in the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), following Liberal Democrat Leader Charles Kennedy MP's Commons challenge to the Prime Minister today on the decision to indefinitely abandon the background checks into care workers in charge of children and the elderly.

Lib-Dem Spokesman on Older People Paul Burstow MP has tabled 25 Parliamentary Questions on the subject and will tomorrow table an Early Day Motion calling for Ministers to face Parliament on the subject, and for the urgent publication of the Carter report into the CRB and Capita.

Liberal Democrat Leader Charles Kennedy MP said:

"Surely the thousands of families in the country who have vulnerable relatives deserved better reassurance from the Prime Minister."

Paul Burstow MP said:

"It is imperative that we now have a timescale for when these checks will be completed. `Indefinite postponement' is not good enough.

"It is disgraceful that this announcement was smuggled out on a Friday afternoon through a House of Lords written answer.

"Ministers must now come to Parliament to provide a full explanation of the chaos at the CRB." ENDS

Notes to Editors.

• Paul Burstow MP has tabled 25 Parliamentary Questions on the CRB and the following Early Day Motion:

SUSPENSION OF CRIMINAL RECORD BUREAU CHECKS FOR EMPLOYEES WHO WORK WITH VULNERABLE CHILDREN AND ADULTS

That this house is appalled by the decision of the Home Office and Department of Health to cancel Criminal Records checks on around 200,000 care home staff, agency nurses, agency domiciliary care staff, residential family centres, and adoption centres; is disgusted that the Protection of Vulnerable Adults (Pova) list that was designed to protect some of the most vulnerable in society from abuse has been postponed indefinitely; notes that the Home Secretary described the function of the Criminal Records Bureau is to reduce the risk of abuse by ensuring that those who are unsuitable are not able to work with children and vulnerable adults, and with this U-turn on checks many hundreds of thousands of individuals will be exposed to intimate contact with individuals who have not had a criminal record check; further notes that this hugely important announcement was smuggled out on a Friday afternoon through a planted House of Lords written answer when the House of Commons was not sitting; also notes the Leader of the House described this practice as an 'odd device'; and calls for Ministers to come to the dispatch box to answer questions on this matter and for the Carter inquiry into the incompetence of the Criminal Records Bureau and Capita to be published as a matter of extreme urgency.

• Paul Tyler MP has written the following letter to the Leader of the House of Commons:

Rt. Hon. Robin Cook MP

Leader of the House

House of Commons

LONDON SW1A 0AA

Tuesday 5th November, 2002

At Business Questions on the 24th October (col. 407 – 409), I raised with you the regrettable Government practice of issuing statements as written answers, which deprives the House of the opportunity to cross examine the relevant Minister.

You stated, "it would be in the interests of everybody else that we should clearly identify what is a written statement, that we should be open and transparent about it and that we should not pretend that it was an answer to a question asked by a Member."

Can I urgently draw your attention to the Official report for the House of Lords for Friday 1st November (col.WA48 – 50). Despite assurances to the contrary, the Government has again committed a gross abuse of the Written Answers System, choosing the rather odd device of the Planted Question to announce the controversial postponement of Criminal Records Bureau check requirements on Care Home Staff, Nurse Agencies and School Governors.

Given the known controversial nature of this announcement was it really in accord with the Government's commitment to transparency to pick a day when the Commons was not sitting, and when other events made it a good day to "bury bad news".

Why could we not have a proper statement yesterday?

PAUL TYLER MP

• Charles Kennedy MP's challenges to the Prime Minister on Wednesday 6th November: (transcript)

The Rt. Hon. Charles Kennedy MP:

Mister Speaker, given the priority which the Government continues to claim to give to the protection of vulnerable people in care in our society, would the Prime Minister explain this afternoon why 300,000 of those providing that care have had their Criminal Record Bureau background checks abandoned indefinitely?

The Prime Minister:

Precisely because we are trying to focus on those who may have implications for the most vulnerable in our society. And it is important to realise that the Criminal Records Bureau of course are handling far more cases than they ever handled before. And we should concentrate on those that are…those in the most…in the categories where there may be the most risk. I would've thought he would agree with that.

The Rt. Hon. Charles Kennedy MP:

Mister Speaker, surely the thousands of families in the country who have vulnerable relatives in precisely that position of care deserve better reassurance from the Prime Minister than that. Can he therefore give us a time-scale – when will these checks be resumed and, most important, when will they be completed?

The Prime Minister:

We will do the checks necessary as soon as possible. But the reason why we have withdrawn certain categories is because we believe it's important to concentrate on those categories of people where there may be the greatest risk. And, incidentally, for the Liberal Democrats I've absolutely no doubt at all that were we not taking a more flexible and sensible attitude, he'd be up on his feet accusing us of unnecessary bureaucracy.