Hansard

I welcome the bill and look forward to its becoming an act. For many of us, it has been difficult to come to terms with some of the detail of the bill, but the passage of the bill has shown the close working relationship that can be formed between a minister and a parliamentary committee. The few amendments that were before the Parliament today show that the changes that were made were significant and worth while. The minister has provided the reassurances that the Education, Culture and Sport Committee sought to enable us to work with her and to see the bill reach fruition today.

The process has not been easy: none of us likes to believe or accept that our children are in danger from people who are in positions of care or responsibility, but the sharp reality is that some dangerous people will be and are in such positions. The bill is not a panacea for everything: it will neither stop child abuse nor will it stop children being hurt by adults. It will, however, go some way towards closing existing loopholes.

I remember the contributions that members of other parties made to the stage 1 debate, most notably Kay Ullrich, who told of her experience as a social worker in Ayrshire. It was a valuable contribution, which helped the committee to understand that people were being moved on because of the perceived threat that they posed to children. The cause of the threat was not dealt with adequately, but was swept under the carpet.

The bill is not an excuse for bad employment practices. Many of the concerns that were expressed in the evidence to the Education, Culture and Sport Committee showed that people felt that proper practices would not be followed. However, those practices must be followed if the bill is to be a success; the passage of the bill cannot be stopped because people do not have in place proper and adequate employment practices.

We need to ensure that protection is given to the work force, but also to the most vulnerable members of our society—children and young people. They deserve nothing less than what is being given to them today. I hope that the bill will move the debate forward, and allow us to close one of the loopholes that exist. However, I hope that it does not engender more fear in our children and young people that there is somebody out there waiting to get them—the bill is about a small number of people. We need to take action, but we must not allow that to be blown out of proportion or to create among children and young people fear of something that simply does not exist.