Lib Dems demand urgent National Audit Office investigation as CRB descends from farce into fiasco

Commenting on the damning report on the Criminal Records Bureau by Patrick Carter that shows the collapse of Private Public Partnership working between Capita and the Home Office, Liberal Democrat Front Bench Spokesman Paul Burstow MP who has pursued Ministers tirelessly on the incompetence of the CRB said:-

" The Criminal Records Bureau has descended from farce into fiasco. What the Carter Inquiry demonstrates is that corners have been cut to save money. Those savings were a false economy that will cost the taxpayer a fortune to put right. From start to finish the CRB project has been badly botched. Even today Ministers are clueless about the CRB's capacity to cope with the expected doubling in its workload.

"Taxpayer deserves an apology from the Home Secretary for the thousands of criminal record checks that have been delayed and hundreds of thousands of checks that have been postponed indefinitely. The fact that Ministers are embarking on a costly renegotiation of the contract with Capita calls into question how they could have signed up to such a poor system in the first place.

"No where in the Carter report or the Home Secretary's response is there a clear timetable for starting checks on staff working with vulnerable adults. The CRB is a vital part of the safety net protecting the most vulnerable from abuse and neglect. Everyday the Government delays checks on staff working with frail elderly people puts lives at risk.

"The Home Secretary's statement today gives cause for concern not confidence in his handling of the CRB. There are more questions than answers in this statement and it reinforces the need for full disclosure of the Carter Report and an investigation by the National Audit Office."

ENDS

Mr Burstow has today written to the Comptroller of the National Audit Office Sir John Bourn asking for an immediate investigation into the Criminal Records Bureau. A Copy of the letter is available on request.

Mr Burstow has tabled 70 Parliamentary Questions exposing the incompetence of the Criminal Records Bureau. He has also tabled to early day motions.

POSTPONEMENT OF CRIMINAL RECORD BUREAU CHECKS 06.11.02

Burstow/Paul

That this House agrees with the Home Secretary that 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; deeply regrets the decision of the Home Office and Department of Health to postpone criminal records checks on 300,000 care home staff, agency nurses, agency domiciliary care staff, residential family centres, and adoption centres, is concerned that the establishment of the Protection of Vulnerable Adults list has been postponed indefinitely, believes that in reducing demand for CRB checks Ministers have put the lives of vulnerable people at risk; further believes that this announcement should have been made by way of a statement in the House of Commons not a written answer in the House of Lords on a Friday afternoon; calls on the Home Secretary to make a statement on this matter; and further calls on the Home Secretary to publish the report of the Carter Inquiry into the Criminal Records Bureau and Capita.

Research undertaken by Mr Burstow from Parliamentary answers show that in December 2002 the number of applications outstanding stood at 251,334. By January 2003 this had increased to 346,861 - an increase of 95,527 or 38%. The massive increase comes despite an inquiry into the CRB headed by Patrick Carter, which reported to the Home Secretary and Lord Falconer initially in September and in greater detail in December.

Letter from Hilary Benn MP to Paul Burstow MP, 24/1/03.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department ,

when he expects to receive the report from Patrick Carter on the strategy and operations of CRB and Capita

what recommendations have been presented to him by Patrick Carter in his interim report Criminal Records Bureau checks; and if he will place a copy of the interim report in the Library

when he expects to publish the final report by Patrick Carter into the Criminal Records Department.

I am sorry that it was not possible to let you have a substantive reply before the end of the session. As promised in the replied that I gave on 7 November, I am writing to respond to the issues that you raised.

David Blunkett appointed Patrick Carter to lead a team of three to conduct an independent review of the Criminal Records Bureau so as to identify the longer-term measures needed to ensure that the Bureau is able to meet the demand for Disclosures. The team provided some initial oral feedback to Ministers in September and is expected to report their conclusions and recommendations by the end of the year. The review team's findings will take the form of advice to Ministers and, as such, will not be in a form intended for publication.

As promised, I am arranging for a copy of this letter to be placed in the Library.

20 Jan 2003 : Column 176W

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will make a statement about the Criminal Record Bureau's organisational preparedness to introduce basic disclosure; [90112]

(2) what recommendations have been presented to him by Patrick Carter in his interim report into Criminal Records Bureau checks; and if he will place a copy of the report in the Library; [89992]

(3) when he expects to publish the final report by Patrick Carter into the Criminal Records Bureau; [89981]

(4) when he will publish the interim report from Patrick Carter regarding the performance of (a) Capita and (b) the Criminal Records Bureau. [89986]

Hilary Benn: My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary appointed Patrick Carter to lead a team of three to conduct an independent review of the Criminal Records Bureau so as to identify the longer-term measures needed to ensure that the Bureau is able to meet the demand for Disclosures. The team provided some initial oral feedback to Ministers in September and reported their final conclusions and recommendations at the end of the year. These took the form of advice to Ministers, including advice on matters that are commercially confidential; as such they are not in a form suitable for publication. We shall be considering the review team's findings and recommendations very carefully and are minded to publish a summary document, together with the Government's response, in due course. A judgement will be reached on Basic Disclosures in the light of the team's findings.

On the 6th November 2003 the Rt Hon Charles Kennedy MP questioned the Prime Minister on the failure of the CRB to protect vulnerable adults:-

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.