Jimmy Savile latest: Safety of child actors a 'complete lottery' admits former children's minister

 
25 October 2012
WEST END FINAL

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Protection of children working in the entertainment industry is a "complete lottery" around the country, a former children's minister said today.

It is not clear that there are consistently high levels of training of chaperones, said Tim Loughton, who left his post last month, and is proposing a Private Member's Bill on the issue.

He has said that he put forward proposals to improve the 40-year-old regulations on children and young people working in entertainment earlier this year, but they were not taken forward.

Today he told BBC Breakfast: "As things stand, a lot of children who are involved in performances are actually breaking the law, and it's a complete lottery around the country, because this is down to licences being issued by local authorities.

"Things like chaperones who need proper training, and it's not clear that we've got a consistently high level of training and standards across the whole ."

He said that when in government, he had been working on a review.

"I tried to persuade Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, to bring that into law. I wasn't able to do that, so what I'm now going to do, is to bring forward a Private Member's Bill in the House of Commons as a matter of urgency to see if we can get this stuff into law to make sure that everybody is following the rules, that we've got good quality child protection happening in all sorts of TV, film, panto, on the stage, so that children are safe."

He added it was important that the laws should not be "excessively bureaucratic".

"The last thing we want to do is deter children from being able to do performances, develop their talent, build their confidence, but we need to make sure that they are doing it in a secure and safe fashion."

He added that the allegations surrounding Jimmy Savile had made it even more urgent that regulations and laws should be fit for purpose.

"But this is not a problem that can just be solved by government ministers and by laws, everybody has a duty of care to be vigilant, to make sure that children are not being taken advantage of, abused, exploited, in all different communities and walks of life, up and down the country, and I think that message is getting across loud and clear now because of the horrendous things that have been happening, by somebody who everybody trusted as everybody's favourite TV presenter, and clearly wasn't."

A Department for Education (DfE) spokesman said: "We have been looking at child performance legislation to make sure it is as effective as possible.

"We issued a consultation in May on a new framework which will leave strict laws on children involved in professional broadcasts in place.

"The Government is considering the responses to the consultation and will announce plans in due course. Nothing the DfE has considered would have had any bearing on the Savile allegations.

"We are taking action to prevent and punish child sexual exploitation wherever and however it occurs.

"We've put in place a robust national action plan with the courts, police and social services to prosecute and jail these criminals; protect young people at risk; and help victims get their lives back on track."

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