Mick Hume of Spiked (formerly Living Marxism) writing for the Times, today:

The streamlined vetting and barring scheme for those working with children or “vulnerable adults� is intended to cover up to eight million teachers, school caretakers, dinner ladies, lollipop persons, nurses, doctors, nannies, childminders, home tutors, social workers, sports instructors, priests, policemen and care workers, along with another 1.5 million less obvious jobs such as hospital cleaners and catering staff. If you deal with children on the phone or the internet, volunteer to run a sports club, or supervise after-school shelf-stackers in a supermarket, you will come under official suspicion.

And

The new vetting system will also rely on “soft� intelligence. The Department for Education proposals talk about using police information on “convictions, cautions, reprimands, warnings and allegations�, as if these were all the same thing. The distinction between a criminal conviction and an unsubstantiated allegation might once have been thought of as a foundation of justice. Now it is looked upon as a loophole, along with that other “licence for perverts �, the presumption of innocence.

‘New vetting system’?

What Mick’s describing here is the Criminal Records Bureau which was ‘established under Part V of the Police Act 1997 and was launched in March 2002′ - and yes, the ‘enchanced’ criminal records certificates that the CRB provides to those working with children does include hearsay ‘evidence’ based on police intelligence and opinion on individuals who have been subject to allegations on which which they could not proceed due to lack of evidence…

…and yes, those of us who payed attention at the time did express serious concerns and reservations about the inclusion of untested hearsay on certificate.

I hate to say this Mick, but you’re about five years late in entering this debate - do try to keep up in future.

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