Police check system 'riddled with holes'

The system in Britain for checking the backgrounds of people applying for jobs working with children is riddled with “huge holes”, a Labour MP claimed today.

Stourbridge MP Debra Shipley, who introduced the Protection of Children Act 1999, said she had pursued the issue with ministers but had been repeatedly “brushed off”.

Ms Shipley was speaking after the outcome of the Soham murder trial and a BBC report based on a leaked document suggesting that many police forces are failing to enter criminal convictions on to the Police National Computer within the seven-day target time.

Ms Shipley told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: “I have gone through my files for the last three years and I have had brush-off after brush-off when I have been pointing out the problems.

“For example, retrospective checking, so those people in employment working with children, accessing children prior to the Criminal Records Bureau, they are not required to be checked. Of course, that is the vast majority of people.

“I have pushed with every minister that has had this on their desk, and have got nowhere. I have had responses like ’it is not consistent with employment legislation’. That is absurd – ministers should change employment legislation.

“I was very, very aware that the Criminal Records Bureau is full of holes, and the carrying out of checks is full of holes, and I have asked ministers repeatedly to do random checks to see that checks are being made in the first place, and that when they are made, that they are acted upon properly.

“The response that I got back was, and I quote, ’I think it is important to maintain a sense of perspective in all of this’.”

Ms Shipley said she could not understand why someone facing as many allegations as Ian Huntley was not brought before a court previously.

She said: “When you have got to the point where vigilantes are in operation because they are frustrated because this man is not being taken to court, you have to look at the reasons why and get a system in place so that when there are very serious allegations like this it goes to court and proper judgments are made.”

Ms Shipley said that the system as a whole needed a thorough review.

She said: “A hell of a lot more needs to be done. There are huge holes in the system. They are being pointed up all the time to ministers and, frankly, we are getting the sort of answers that explain the status quo. They explain the situation, they do not do anything about it.”