So much for the government announcing business in The House of Commons before briefing the press as was promised by our new masters.
The Telegraph this morning has the story on the re-working of Labours flagship Stasi spying legislation aka The Vetting and Barring Scheme :
Anti-paedophile vetting scheme to be scaled back
An anti-paedophile vetting scheme that would have involved nine million adults will be ripped up next week in a major reworking of how background checks are conducted, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
Labour’s much criticised Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) will no longer go ahead, with the vetting of individuals “very significantly” curtailed.
Only those in sensitive posts or who have intensive contact with children or vulnerable people will need to be cleared and undergo criminal record checks.
At first glance, something of a result although “very significantly curtailed” is not half as good as scrapped completely but we can hope.
Unfortunately, that first glance seems to be in the best tradition of the previous lot, as the detail of the story does not come anywhere near the initial claim.
Firstly, how does “very significantly curtailed” stand up to the next paragraph :
The number of people affected is expected to more than halve.
Well, the original scheme was looking to cover around 11 million people and the reworked Balls version around 9 million so this new “very significantly curtailed” scheme will still cover around one in ten of the population.
Secondly, I can see the creation of a few hundred prodnose style council posts to ensure that employers are doing their bit (emphasis mine) :
Instead of millions having to register themselves with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), which would conduct criminal record checks and oversee a national database, the onus will shift to the employer to ensure staff are properly checked and cleared to work.
This will also do nothing to stop employers insisting on checks being made even when they are completely pointless :
Last January, Annabel Hayter, chairwoman of Gloucester Cathedral Flower Guild, received an email saying that she and her 60 fellow flower arrangers would have to undergo a CRB check.
CRB stands for Criminal Records Bureau, and a CRB check is a time-consuming, sometimes expensive, pretty much always pointless vetting procedure that you must go through if you work with children or ‘vulnerable adults’.
Everyone else had already been checked: the ‘welcomers’ at the cathedral door; the visitors’ guides; the whole of the cathedral office (though they rarely left their room). The flower guild was all that remained.
The cathedral authorities expected no resistance. Though the increasing demand for ever tighter safety regulation has become one of the biggest blights on Britain today, we are all strangely supine: frightened not to comply.But not so Annabel Hayter. ‘I am not going to do it,’ she said.And her act of rebellion sparked a mini-revolution among the other cathedral flower ladies.
All those points, however important they may or may not be, pale into insignificance when you consider the one little bit that is missing from the entire article and, I suspect, will not be removed from the legislation when it is reworked.
I am, of course, talking about the inclusion of unproven allegations and “tip offs” :
When vetting people, the ISA will use records of convictions and other information held by the police, including unproven allegations. The ISA will also assess allegations sent to it by former employers and even anonymous tip-offs.
This element is Labours Stasi enabling act – the call to curtain twitchers everywhere to pass on their “concerns” to the authorities. This is the “nothing to hide, nothing to fear” party slogan brought to life which is more corrosive than any other piece of legislation they tried to pass. This is the bit that should be scrapped completely rather than encouraged and nurtured.
Unfortunately, for all the piss and bluster and promises of legislative bonfires and “Great Repeals”, the new lot will not drop this one because it feeds their whole notion of controlling the masses and perpetuating the terror and paedophile threat.
As the article helpfully tells us, we will have to wait for later in the week to see what The Freedom Bill includes :
The reform, to be included in the Freedom Bill published next week, aims to reverse the notion that everyone is a potential risk to children.
I am sure when it does arrive (presumably after The Telegraph has drip fed all their other pre-briefed tidbits) that it will contain much more spin than substance and will have very little to do with the concept of freedom as understood by those of us outside government.
Refreshingly candid – and accurate. You’ll find equally accurate and sharp comments at http://theopinionsite.org, the sage of which seems to share your view exactly! Pity others can’t see the dangers of this type of legislation.