Yvette Cooper calls for “very rapid answers” from Home Office   FOIs from the Disclosure & Barring Service obtained by the Labour Party show:   - The number of people being barred from working with children as a result of committing sexual offences against children has dropped by 10,000 (over 75 per cent) in the last three years. The number has fallen from 12,360 in 2011 to 5,758 in 2012 and to 2,800 in 2013. - And the number of people being barred from working with children as a result of intelligence sharing and investigations by the police and Disclosure and Barring Service has fallen from 1,542 in 2011 to 471 in 2012 and to 351 in 2013 (again a fall of over 75 per cent). - Yet the number of sexual offences against children has not fallen, and reported sexual offences against children have increased in number. - This drop in barring includes big reductions due to changes made by the Home Secretary which makes it harder to bar a convicted sex offender and reductions in the number of bars resulting from intelligence-sharing work undertaken by the DBS and the police. - Thousands of people who have committed sexual offences against children such as sexual activity with a child or abuse of children through child abuse images are no longer being barred from working with children. - This has happened since Theresa May changed the vetting and barring regime brought in following the report by Lord Bichard after the Soham murders, which took place in 2003. - There are two ways of being barred – following a conviction or from police or other local intelligence examined by the Disclosure and Barring Service. Both have seen significant falls. - Barring based on conviction has been changed by legislation. For all but a handful of offences, only those actually working with children or expressing a desire to work with children (defined as working in ‘regulated activity’) are added to the barred list. Those in other occupations are not added. And most offenders are not added to the barred list until after they have had a chance to make representations (previously they were added to the list and could only appeal afterwards). - People subject to ‘discretionary barring’ have not been affected by the Government’s legislation, which makes this reduction doubly worrying. This is based on the capacity of the Disclosure and Barring Service and local police forces to share information.     Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, said:   “This massive drop in the number of people being barred from working with children at the same time as reported child sex offences are rising is deeply troubling. Theresa May was warned repeatedly that the new legislation left major loopholes in the system. This evidence shows those warnings were right. And there is no explanation at all why the work of the Disclosure and Barring Service on cases that don’t reach court should have collapsed in this way.“   "Parents want to know that if someone has committed serious abuse against children or has a history of grooming or sexual abuse, they will not be allowed to work with children. And schools, sports organisations and other groups need to be able to have confidence in the vetting and barring system. Child protection is immensely important and it must not be put at risk because of faulty legislation or failures in the Home Office system.” “ We need some very rapid answers from the Home Office about why these figures have dropped so much and whether they believe the child protection system is strong enough.” Diana Johnson MP, Labour’s Shadow Crime & Security Minister, added:   “These figures are deeply concerning and show how that despite being warned this Government is taking risks with child safety. Lord Bichard’s inquiry into Ian Huntley after the Soham murders was very clear that we need a simple system to identify those who pose a danger, and then stop them working with children.” “These figures show that the system is being undermined. Thousands fewer people are being identified, and even those convicted of serious sex crimes against children are not being added to the barred list.”   “What is more concerning is what is happening to those not convicted, but where there are suspicions about their behaviour and conduct. We should remember that there were eight outstanding allegations against Ian Huntley, but no convictions, and sadly it is often those not yet convicted who can pose the biggest danger to children.“   “The role of the Disclosure and Barring Service is to look at all available evidence and bar those against whom there is credible evidence of a danger to children. But there has been more than an 80 per cent fall in the number of those placed on the barred list this way. The Government need to explain this because there is no evidence of an 80 per cent drop in the instances of suspicious and unacceptable behaviour towards children.”   “The Government appears to have substantially weakened the system for protecting children and other vulnerable people, just as public concern grows.”