§ Mr. Andrew TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what delays are being experienced by schools between employing(a) teaching, (b) classroom support, (c) voluntary and (d) other staff and their deployment into activities with children, arising from delays in screening by the Criminal Records Bureau. [85068]
§ Mr. MilibandMy Department has not been made aware of any delays in schools deploying staff or volunteers to work with children since we issued advice about interim arrangements in September. Those arrangements allow new staff and volunteers in schools for whom a Criminal Records Bureau Disclosure is required to be deployed to work with children while awaiting the Disclosure at the discretion of the Head teacher. Schools should check my Department's list of people who are barred from working with children in the education service (List 99) and complete other recruitment checks such as taking up references, before staff or volunteers start work.