Criminal record checks could hit over 14 million people

"Look at Tony & Cherri Blair ... him fingering her in the upstairs of a double decker bush."

"double decker bush"

What, George and Laura?

That would explain the expressions when Blair was at Camp David then...

T-shirt

I did suggest, as a joke, on a mailing list I use that people (well, men) are issued with a special T-shirt saying "not a paedo" when they pass a CRB. I wonder if a tatto on the forehead would be better? What do people think?

RE: "CRB all new parents"

Great idea, should be implemented immediately!

I always said people should have to licenses to have children! I mean we used to have them for Dogs and we still have them for cars but any cretin can drop a footy team worth of sprogs on the publics shilling (thousands and thousand of shillings more likely) and they are far more dangerous than any any dog or car.

I would of course change it so we didn't exclude the hippies with spent weed convictions, they are all right really and i would instead include a questionnaire with questions regarding their attitudes to tracksuits and baseball caps as fashion or if they consider Elizabeth Duke a "Jewelers" or not.

I am sure they would call it eugenics or something, i probably wouldn't disagree, i'd be too busy building my lair with a decent games room.

As a volunteer

.. I absolutely resent this whole f***ing CRB crap. I did not sign on to do "charitable works" (I'm in St John Ambulance). I signed on to help people out in a Medical "oops I'm bleeding" sort of emergency. NOT because I want to work with kids (I don't.. can't stand 'em). NOT because I want to work with vulnerable adults.

So now, because I feel like being nice for once in my life, I have to get lumped into the "probably guilty, deserves an ID card" category this effing Govt is so keen on expanding!!!!

Yes I know I got CRB'd when I joined, but since I am transferring area, I've got to be f***ing CRB'd AGAIN!!!! It'll probably even have to be one of these CRB+ things.

This is a joke. Once I can live with in a basic "is he unsafe/criminally minded" way, but mutiple times???? For things like a single "posession of happy smokes 16yrs ago" kind of way?

How do I get out of this whole Nu-Lab PC "everyone's a crook" world?

Worthless

The CRB check is worthless. From the moment it leaves the printer it is already out of date. That and the CRB check only records people who've been caught.

I knew someone who ran a local youth team for 20 years before being caught, god knows what the total victim count on that was. Now his life's a shambles which is some small comfort I s'pose

Because of the way they've been touted as a panacea, people think of CRB checks as a magic shield that will protect there kids from harm. Many conversations I've had where the subject has arisen have ended up with the other person saying "You wouldn't understand, you're not a parent" [shakes head]

I too have stopped doing volunteer work as have a lot of people I know, which is causing problems with all the local social/scouting/sports teams. The local footy team has only got an adults team but demands everyone involved has a CRB as kids *sometimes* come and watch :S

If anyone can explain that one, lock yourself up in a padded cell

We are governed by morons

My wife volunteered to do the posters for the bingo night of our daughter's nursery and was told she needed a CRB check. She was a primary school teacher for 15 years and has got better things to do in the evening than fill out forms. She won't be doing any more volunteering.

Errors in your facts - or at least someone's!

Every time the Soham murders come up, we get another collection of errors in the way things are worded.

I don't count two girls who came to a house of their own accord as abducted. I know what happened next was appalling, but also remember that the girls did not know Huntley and did not attend the college where he worked. They went to a different school and knew his girlfriend, and perhaps that last is the only reason that this insane plan is being played out.

This is very simple in its effect, eventually a CRB enhanced check will be valued just as much as a wad of used toilet tissue, IOW it will be total crap and no one will trust you whether you've got one or not. Remember how in Catch-22 Captain Black's loyalty oath crusade was run, no one who wasn't already seen to be loyal was allowed to sign an oath to that effect.

I despair of this insane country, but equally having looked at Privacy International's map of countries I see that only Greece has any level of protection against arbitrary measures in law and I don't imagine that this status will last for long now.

Presumably the only way out left is to go out in a blaze of glory by doing a Guy Fawkes on the bunch of clueless scum that govern us.

Posting AC because that last statement probably means I'm on the list already, and Black Helicopters for obvious reasons.

Cyclist...

I don't want to comment on this but...

As a cyclist myself, I think this entire case has been overblown by the media, which seem to jump on any story about any cyclist breaking any law, anywhere and turn it into a headline. But... he saw the group step out into the road (he shouted a warning) and made no attempt to stop. Reports say that he was doing 17-23 mph when he went into them. Forget about all this 'who was at fault' crap, simple humanity demands that you don't deliberately plough into a group of people in any vehicle at any speed, regardless of the rights and wrongs of the situation. Don't know the person who did this, but he sounds like a classic example of a cycle nazi.

The family were pissed because he wasn't prosecuted for manslaughter, and I can totally sympathise with that.

There, that's off my chest now.

Sorry if I'm covering old ground...

..can't be arsed reading 60 comments, although I'm sure they are very entertaining... anyway it seems to me that the government is moving toward a society where they can abduct...er arrest anyone and spend the next 24 hours thinking up a passable reason why. It will take mere seconds while their accusatron is operational.

Trust? The legal world destroyed it.

It's getting to be a "pick yer witchunt" kind of world.

So... seeing as we no longer have trust... or privacy for that matter, is it too much to ask that my records are used to recommend me for my ideal job? If I was the ideal candidate I should be paid handsomely? Yeah, I know, pie in the sky, but I thought I should put the idea out there, maybe someone will pick up on it.

common sense ?

I volunteered some time ago to assist with maintaining the IT infrastructure and website for a charity. They are now in the position of paying for 5 CRB's per week in addition to every last one of the 20 or 30 or so folks working for them in paid positions and untold numbers of volunteers. The charity runs projects that work with drug addicts (more successful than most) and some of those working with these folks have had a colourful past of their own. Each of these CRB's regardless of the background of the individual concerned is subject to yearly renewal.

My wife worked in education as a teaching assistant through an agency - Supply teachers and assistants have to be CRB'd.... for all of the agencies they are registered with, and at their own expense with no promises regarding whether or not they'll actually get any hours.....

Someone, a contracting company I suspect, is getting rich off of this, whilst those that have to be CRB'd are going to end up stealth taxed. Oh....and we have ID cards around the corner. More dollar for idiots in sharp suits, another tax on employment for those least able to pay..... great

Next we'll be expected to submit to a CRB at our own expense simply to apply for work in any of these areas. Whatever happens all taxpayers end up paying for this stupidity.

Disgusted of Birmingham

"spent" convictions

I was under the distinct impression that convictions became "spent" after so many years and you no longer had to declare them on any job application...

secondly, I was awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct medal after 15 years of service in the forces with no blemishes on my conduct record... the joke being that everyone in the know refers to that medal as the 15 years "undetected" medal. It really meant I hadn't been caught... not that my conduct was really good... this is the same thing with the CRB check... it just means that you haven't been caught, not that you aren't doing it...

And then add all the sports

So we will have to register all the coaches, refs, umpires and in quite a few clubs the members too

Wonder when the system will have everyone on it !!!!

@Adam Foxton

Actually, I can identify with the Smoking Ban analogy.

It's NuLabours usual way of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Smoking ban - They could have allowed some smoking bars if all employees/employers were happy to work in a smoking establishment, but no, thay had a total ban.

Then Gordon B wants to ban happy hours and cheap drinks in supermarkets - same sledgehammer cracking everyones nuts.

More recently he wants to stop 2 for 1 deals on supermarket food because according to GB most people dont eat the stuff or freeze it to eat another day -- they just waste it!!

This latest hairbrained scheme is just another sledgehammer...

don't assume malice where incompetence will do just as well

Apart from being a good generator of revenue, this also seems to be a gigantic arse covering exercise.

I've noticed this pattern with Nu Labor, something shocking occurs, the media discuss a multitude of ways it could have been avoided, happily filling all the air time they now have to fill, then the cretin, oops sorry, minister responsible introduces new legislation or process to say "we've got it covered".

Look at shootings, ban gun's and the problems disappeared, and Nu Labor have "acted decisively" to eradicate the problem -NOT!

Typical crap from a government that are controlled pretty much totally by the media and sound bite journalism

As for this CRB check...

why was it members of the Register staff had to undergo it? what sort of test was that??

--Glenn

Did I read that correctly?!?

Bottom of Page 4

Allow Single Mothers to check out the sexual history of their new partners

WHAT!!!

While it's understandable (if a little overly paranoid) that you don't want to start dating someone who's only after you for your kids, what does that say about the state of Britain today? You want to go out with a yummy mummy so you're automatically a pervert? I assume any single dads out there will be allowed to check on the history of their new girlfriend's to make sure they're not prone to displays of Munchausen syndrome? Of course not, because that hasn't (if you'll pardon the expression) been "sexed up" by the tabloids to make people more accepting of the big brotherness that's highjacked the NuLabour manifesto. Can't think of an intelligent way to solve this problem, lets spy on people! It's for their own good (and we cant blame everything on terrorists)

/rant

After-school clubs are disappearing...

It's certainly happening. My 7-yr old son's judo club just packed up. One of the two (female) instructors was pregnant and had to take a break (obviously). The other instructor couldn't carry on because "the rules" dictate that there have to be two CRB-ed qualified people on hand at all times *and* the club needs a "young persons' officer" (also CRB checked) *and* this *and* that *and* the next thing.

This club works in a sports hall where about 60% of the parents of the children present sit along the side watching! There's no real need for anyone to have a CRB, or for a "Young Persons' Officer" or any such crap. Any youngster with a problem can step off the mat and have a parent sort it.

Sledgehammer meet nut. However, as others here have observed, I'm of the opinion that all this CRB stuff is an under-the-radar attempt to populate up the NIR to critical point. And (as others have suggested) to gauge the likely level of opposition once they go public with the NIR and ID Cards data-grab.

Is there one of those "Downing Street Online Petition" things set up yet for people to start protesting about this?

@Mike Moyle

Mike Moyle,

Unfortunately the GOVERNMENT has NO MONEY. IT'S ALL OUR MONEY. This is the fundamental problem with Brown Trousers and Labour. THEY THINK IT'S THEIR MONEY TO SPEND. IT'S NOT. IT'S OURS.

Just remember whenever a politician says "I put 1 billion into blah" - thats YOUR MONEY. YOU put that money into whatever, NOT the politician.

Not hard to see where this madness will end

"It's hard to see where this madness will end"

No it's not, it will end on November the 5th when we all storm the houses of parliament and hang every labour MP from the nearest lamp post. (Get your V masks from ebay!)

To the septic AC - Yes quite amazingly we have a PM who makes Bush look good. Don't gloat please we have really not had a chance to get rid of the brown trousered one so far. Given the slightest chance we will remove the one eyed c**t.

Paranoid? Nahhhh

"A mother has been told she cannot travel to school with her severely epileptic son because she has not been police checked."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_east/7500376.stm

@ Mark

EXACTLY! "Stop blaming the victim!" has become a mantra.

The problem is that people chant it even when the victim is in some measure responsible for what happened.

Now, considering that (1) you can get your name onto the Sex Offender's Register for taking a leak in a deserted alley and (2) councils are closing public toilets right, left and centre leaving little option, it's surely just a matter of time before everyone with a Y-chromosome is rendered unemployable.

CRB = TSA = total stupidity and you'll never get your life back

Sorry for the Anonymous out there who got the Moderatrix stirred up. A pedestrian is not equal to a bike. A bike is not equal to a car, truck or bus. Any driver who fails to yield to the lesser vehicle is such a rude ignorant sod they don't belong on the road...period. I don't care if the pedestrian was 14, 17, or 70. I've made a point to teach my kids when driving that pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way, even when they're in the wrong. It's a lot simpler than having to ever worry about whose life you took for no good reason. As for the cyclist in that story; it's a good thing that wasn't my kid (and most likely that I wasn't even at the scene); or he likely wouldn't have made it to court (in countable pieces).

It sounds to me (yes, I'm American), that the CRB is like being on the TSA list. You can get there for things you'll never know about (like this posting) and never be able to get off; especially if they use "secret" sources and "national security" and "terror" and "paedo" as keywords to frighten the senseless of the nation into submission.

Anyone see a connection?

Adult males deciding they no longer want to do any constructive youth/charity work - sports, scouts, duke of edin, clubs etc because the perceived risks and CRB hassle are too high.

Disenfranchised youths running amok with knives because they have no role models/nothing to do that allows them to obtain some social standing/personal reward/satisfaction

Alien because I feel like one in this country

Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act

Not many people are aware that this legislation brought in the "extreme pornography" criteria before that was even enacted in UK law. In its criteria for someone being excluded from working with children *and* adults, it says:

"conduct involving sexually explicit images depicting violence against human beings (including possession of such images), if it appears to IBB that the conduct is inappropriate"

(The IBB is the Independant Barring Board)

In other words, even before it was illegal to possess so-called "extreme porn" it could *already* get you blocked from a job.

Oh and regarding the cyclist, I would invite people to consider the following:

Whilst the National News was trumpeting how a cyclist who killed a pedestrian gets a two thousand pound fine (the family, unsurprisingly, think that's not enough of a penalty), a lorry driver in Portsmouth got a £275 fine for killing a cyclist when he (the driver) ignored a Give Way sign

Of course the first story is the "big news" because cyclists don't actually kill or injure people very often, but cyclists being mown down by careless drivers happens on a regular basis and, as such, aren't newsworthy...

<http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/Widow-outraged-at-39ludicrous39-sentence.4268357.jp>