Experts have urged the government to tighten safeguarding laws designed to block potential abusers from joining global aid charities.
Charities should be able to request detailed background checks on all aid staff recruited to work with beneficiaries overseas, according to an independent review of government policy.
The change would expand rules that currently limit checks just to global development staff who will work with children or vulnerable adults.
The call was welcomed by charity leaders, who said it would help keep “perpetrators out of our sector”.
A parliamentary committee made similar recommendations to ministers more than two years ago.
The government has previously ruled out making these changes but told Third Sector that it will “carefully consider” the recommendation.
The proposal is part of a series of changes to safeguarding policy and rules introduced after allegations that local women were mistreated and abused when Oxfam staff responded to the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
The change was recommended in an independent review of the government’s disclosure and barring service (DBS), published late last week.
The DBS carries out background checks when people are recruited for jobs, to make sure employers have all the information they need before hiring someone.
Standard checks include details of spent and unspent convictions while enhanced checks allow the police to provide further relevant information if they think it is necessary.
The DBS also maintains lists of people barred by law from working with children and vulnerable adults because of the potential risk they pose.
British aid workers recruited in this country are already subject to enhanced checks if they work with children or vulnerable adults but the review says legislation should go further.
It argues that the rules should be changed to make sure all aid workers recruited to work overseas are “eligible for enhanced criminal record checks with barred list checks”.
The review says: “Recent history has revealed instances of aid workers exploiting their positions in relation to adults who, although in ordinary language might be regarded as vulnerable because of their need of help or assistance, would not fall within that definition for the purposes of an enhanced DBS check.
“I have concluded that legislation should clearly provide that aid workers whose contract of employment in respect of adults or children is made here should be eligible for enhanced criminal record checks with barred list checks.”
Bailey adds: “I note that, recently, the government achieved this for those who were offering homes to refugees from the war in Ukraine by amendments to the relevant statutory instruments.”
Parliament’s International Development Committee made a similar demand of ministers in 2021 when its report into abuse in the aid sector recommended: “The government should amend the regulations to designate aid work as a regulated activity, requiring aid workers to undertake an enhanced DBS check before they can work with aid beneficiaries.”
Responding to that report, the government said that no changes to legislation were necessary because the law already allowed for enhanced checks for people working with children and vulnerable adults across all sectors.
But Bond, the UK network for international development organisations, told Third Sector that expanding the law to cover more people would help protect aid beneficiaries from harm.
Stephanie Draper, chief executive of Bond, said: “Bond has been advocating for international charities to be able to obtain DBS checks for frontline humanitarian workers since 2018 because in these volatile situations people are incredibly vulnerable, so this is a step in the right direction.
“Previously there has been little progress on widening the obligation for international charity workers to have DBS checks and requiring international charities to report to the DBS cases where harm has been caused.
“International charities will now be better able to keep perpetrators out of our sector and help protect marginalised people from harm.”
Responsibility for DBS lies with the Home Office. A spokesperson for the department said: “We thank Simon Bailey for his review into the disclosure and barring regime which provides assurance on the regime’s effectiveness in safeguarding to children and vulnerable adults.
“The review identifies several areas where the regime could be strengthened, resulting in nine recommendations which the government will now carefully consider.”