Drink and drug users who have abused children could work with young people within five years if they can show their behaviour was linked to addiction, a government official has said.
Adults who have inappropriate sexual relations with children, including showing them pornography, are banned from working with young and vulnerable people for at least ten years.
The rules were brought in after Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, both ten, from Soham, Cambridgeshire, were murdered in 2002 by Ian Huntley, a school caretaker.
Adult abusers have the right of appeal after ten years but this was shortened to five years for people under the age of 26 in provisions pushed through by SNP, Labour and Green MSPs after a heated debate in Holyrood yesterday. Anyone under the age of 26 can now appeal after five years if there has been “a relevant change to the circumstances” that indicates they are no longer a danger to the public.
Lynne McMinn, director of policy at Disclosure Scotland, a government quango, told the education committee: “A change in circumstances . . . could be that the behaviour that led to you being barred was the direct result of addiction to alcohol or drugs, and you can evidence down the line that you have sought treatment, the behaviour has desisted and it is no longer behaviour that is of concern.” She said the change in age threshold would bring Scotland into line with England.
Advertisement
The Scottish Tories tried to block the amendment, partly on the grounds that copying England was not a sufficient reason to amend Scottish policy. Stephen Kerr, the Conservative chairman of the committee, said the list of offences under which people could be banned from work “are pretty serious whether you are 16, 24 or 34”.
Meghan Gallacher, also a Tory MSP, said the amendment “may allow people who have been identified as harmful to children to be allowed to work with children sooner and could reoffend”.
Fergus Ewing, the former SNP community safety minister, accused the Tories of “nothing short of scaremongering”. Ross Greer, the Scottish Greens education spokesman, said it was “very unlikely” young people who engaged in serious sexual misconduct would be removed from the banned list. He said the change would make it easier for children who committed crimes of “far less gravity” to be rehabilitated.
