Benson-Pope pushed further over claims 

Cabinet Minister David Benson-Pope has been pushed further in the House, over allegations he entered the girls' shower room and dormitories at school camps when he was a teacher.

The school's principal at the time has been quoted as saying that after a complaint from a parent, the policy was discussed with Benson-Pope and changed in 1997.

To date Prime Minister Helen Clark's defence of Benson-Pope over those claims, has been that he was acting within school policy.

She says her minister made an error of judgement, but it wasn't serious enough to cost him his job.

The Social Development Minister remains in the opposition's firing line, despite making a carefully worded apology on Tuesday to students from Dunedin's Bayfield High School who raised concerns over his behaviour at a school camp in 1997.

He told MPs he accepts the concerns of some former students are real and apologised "for any upset." 

Last year Benson-Pope said in parliament that he was unaware of any complaints relating to his time as a teacher at the school however.

National Party welfare spokesperson Judith Collins asked him if he had ever been into girls' changing rooms after the policy change.

He said he was not aware of any further allegations in that regard, and he does not believe that any of his actions have ever been outside school policy of the day.

Collins says Benson-Pope's apology just adds insult to injury. 

She says the minister's apology was just an attempt to stop further allegations becoming public.  She says Benson-Pope must have known about the complaint, because the school's policy was changed as a result of it.

Act leader Rodney Hide claims he has fresh information on Benson-Pope and says he is taking the new allegations to the police. 

Hide says the issue won't go away in the wake of his denial of any formal complaints against him.