(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations regulate aspects of the procedure to be followed by the Independent Barring Board (“IBB”) established under section 1 of, and Schedule 1 to, the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (“the Act”).
Regulation 2 stipulates the manner in which individuals should be invited to make representations as to whether they should be included in one of the barred lists maintained under section 2 of the Act and the time that they should be given to do so. This regulation will apply to all representations which individuals are permitted to make to IBB, including any made under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (Transitional Provisions) Order 2008, S.I. 2008/473 (“the TPO”).
Regulations 3 to 9 set the minimum period that a person will remain barred before they are permitted to apply for permission to apply for a review of their inclusion in one of the barred lists.
Regulations 3 to 8 do this in relation to any person whom IBB is required to include in one of the barred lists pursuant to articles 2 or 4 of the TPO. These are people who, when they are included in one of the barred lists, are already prohibited from particular types of work because they are included in the list maintained under section 1 of the Protection of Children Act 1999 or the list maintained under section 81 of the Care Standards Act 2000, or are subject to a disqualification order (i.e. an order made under section 28, 29 or 29A of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000), or to a direction of the Secretary of State under section 142(1) of the Education Act 2002. The repeal of the provisions providing for these “previous restrictions” (see regulation 1(2)) will not affect a person’s minimum barred period or their inclusion in one or both lists.
Regulation 9 set the minimum barred period in relation to all other cases.
Regulation 10 determines the point at which the minimum barred period set by regulations 3 to 9 is treated as starting.
Regulation 11 must be read against paragraph 18 of Schedule 3 to the Act. Paragraph 18(3) of that Schedule states that a person may only apply to IBB for permission to apply for a review of their inclusion in a barred list if (i) the minimum barred period relating to them has expired and (ii) they have not, during a prescribed period, made an application for permission. Regulation 11 prescribes that period.
In general, if a person is under 18, the period within which they must not have made an application is one year. If they have reached the age of 18 but are less than 25 years old, it is five years. And if they are aged 25 years or older, it is 10 years. However, paragraphs (3) and (5) of this regulation address the possibility that a person might pass from one age category to the next without having exercised their right to apply for permission to seek a review. The effect of paragraph (3) is that, where a person had the right to make an application before they reached the age of 18 but failed to exercise it before they reached that age, their eligibility to make an application continues to depend on their not having made any such application within the previous year, rather than the previous 5 years (or 10 years, if they have still failed to exercise the right by the time that they reach the age of 25). Paragraph (5) has a similar effect in relation to a person who had started with the right to make an application if they had not done so in the previous 5 years. If they have not exercised this right they do not lose it by virtue of reaching the age of 25. So the requirement not to have made an application within the previous 10 years does not affect them until they have made an application.