Hong Kong commission recommends expanding background checks for sex offenders to personal tutors, volunteers working with children
- Law Reform Commission stops short of calling for screening to become mandatory
- Sexual offenders whose conviction has been treated as ‘spent’ after three years should not be scrutinised, it says
Hong Kong’s Law Reform Commission has recommended expanding background checks for sexual offences to personal tutors and NGO volunteers working with children and mentally vulnerable people but stopped short of making the screening mandatory.
The statutory independent body acknowledged there were opposing views on the issue, although it called for the government to “seriously consider” the option in its report released on Monday.
“We maintain our view that as far as prospective employees are concerned … we do not see an immediate demand for the Sexual Conviction Record Check Scheme to become a comprehensive legislative scheme,” the report said.
“Having said that, we note the responses received, which show that there is indeed a demand from the community that the government should give due consideration to optimising the current administrative scheme, [such as] extending it to cover all existing employees, self-employed persons, and volunteers by implementing all of our recommendations made in the report.”
Yet, in the long run, the government should “seriously consider” mandating the scheme, it added.
The current framework, introduced in December 2011, only allows employers to check on their new hires provided companies can prove to police that their work is related to children or mentally incapacitated people.