Q28 Mr. Dave Anderson: Given what you have just said, that we would get there, can you comment on the suitability of staff who would be recruited? In the consultation which went on, 26 of the respondents actually said they believed that people should be at the same level as if they were joining the PSNI, which I would have thought was a very, very high level for anybody to meet. Do you think that the Protocols they put in place will actually make it possible to recruit sufficient numbers of people to actually carry out the job properly?

Lord Clyde: Yes. At the moment, the schemes do have their standards of staff. They have training procedures and they have accreditation for the staff, so all that is already in place. Particular standards, if somebody thinks they are not high enough, can be imposed or suggested and introduced, but I have not been aware of any anxieties of shortcomings on the part of those who are actually working in these areas. One thing I would have thought was certainly undesirable was to have some procedure set up to the appointment by the state of people who had participated in the voluntary sector. These schemes are part of the voluntary sector of the whole criminal justice system and it is not appropriate, I would suggest, for the state sector to be going to a voluntary body and saying, "You are to improve your standards." The voluntary bodies which operate, such as NIACRO and the many other bodies which are voluntary organisations which help in the criminal justice system have their own independence, their own standards and their own procedures. If they are not good enough, then the state will not employ them.

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Q35 Mr. Dave Anderson: My concern on this was that I attended a meeting earlier this year in this place hosted by the Member for South Belfast, but he is not here today, with some of his constituents who had actually gone through this process and they were very, very concerned about some of the people they were working with and who were officially the representatives of the CRJ in their area. Do you believe, as we have been advised, that the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults Act will form the basis of this? Do you think we can avoid that happening in the future? Do you think what has been put in place will work?

Lord Clyde: I think these schemes can work, yes, and I would have thought that disclosure for working with children and others who require particular care was perfectly appropriate. I cannot say with accuracy precisely what qualifications are sought at the moment, but those are the quite appropriate requirements in amongst the various ones for saying who were the appropriate people to sit, or not.

This is an uncorrected transcript of evidence taken in public and reported to the House. The transcript has been placed on the internet on the authority of the Committee. Neither witnesses nor Members have had the opportunity to correct the record. The transcript is not yet an approved formal record of these proceedings.

Promoted by Paul Foy on behalf of Dave Anderson, both of St Cuthbert's Church Hall, Shibdon Road, Blaydon, NE21 5PT