When school caretaker Ian Huntley murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham there was a national outcry.

Huntley had been known to the authorities for some time and yet he slipped through the net and was allowed to work in close quarters to children, regardless of what the Police knew about him. I guess the libertarians would say there was nothing in his record that could prove he would become a child killer, so just let him work. I disagree, and that’s why I legislated to bring in a new body that could ban people like him from holding a job like that.

If he had been a teacher he would have been vetted, but as a caretaker he was not. Predatory paedophiles are very clever when it comes to getting access to children. As an Education Minister in 2006 it was my job to bring through new legislation to help protect children from abusers.

The Act that passed through Parliament was supported by all political parties and will help to protect children from those who seek to harm them. We will never be able to guarantee that another Soham will never happen, but by ensuring that those people who have regular access to your children are properly vetted, we have a better chance of ensuring their safety.

Anybody who has taken the time to read the Act or read what I said when taking it through Parliament will be well aware that this legislation does NOT impinge on parents and the choices they make. Parents helping each other out by giving their friends’ or neighbours’ children a lift to school or to a sporting event are not under the scope of the Act. Neither are your personal childminding arrangements affected – but when you turn to an Agency you will now know their staff have to be vetted.

So I was surprised and disappointed to read this week about people either deliberately misleading folk about the scope of this legislation or just not bothering to research it before condemning it.

Desperate politicians do and say desperate things. But when their claims are utterly untrue it only serves to bring politics in to disrepute.

I think we need to be firmer on the Huntley’s of this world, not weaker.

Parmjit Dhanda MP

Member of Parliament for Gloucester