Amendment of Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
The Chair and Panel recommend that the Home Office ensures that the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 is amended so that, where a fitness to practise hearing has been conducted by the keeper of a relevant register and has resulted in removal of a practitioner from that register for reasons relating to harm or risk of harm to children: the keeper of the register has a duty to refer that information to the Disclosure and Barring Service; and the Disclosure and Barring Service, on receiving the referral, has a duty to automatically bar the practitioner from working with children, allowing them the opportunity to make representations to the Disclosure and Barring Service if they consider the bar to be disproportionate or unfair.
- In May 2023, the government stated that it accepted this recommendation subject to further assessment following the Bailey Review of Disclosure and Barring Regulations (Government Response to IICSA Final Report, HM Government, May 2023).
- No published amendment to the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 concerning fitness to practise findings has been identified to March 2026.
How was this evidence gathered?
Response
Not Accepted
Response
Not AcceptedThe DBS is in the process of establishing single points of contact at a strategic level with all Keepers of Registers and Supervisory Authorities. By the end of August, the DBS will have had meetings with all of the largest Keepers of Registers to discuss this matter.
On 19 December 2018, the UK government stated that the Home Office would ask the Disclosure and Barring Service to continue its close engagement with all professional bodies to ensure that effective information sharing takes place at all stages of their respective decision-making processes, and to inform the department of any emerging issues. On 22 July 2019, the Home Office stated that there were no emerging issues.