Ed Balls under pressure to rethink entire vetting scheme


Martin Beckford writes in The Telegraph:

Ministers are under pressure to carry out a complete rethink of the controversial vetting scheme for people working with children and vulnerable groups, despite a last-minute climbdown.

Following a review of the scope of the world’s biggest anti-paedophile database, some of its most vocal critics – including famous authors who give readings at schools – will no longer have to have their backgrounds checked.

But an estimated nine million people, including parents who sign up to school driving rotas for weekly sports events, must still register.

Philip Pullman, the author of the His Dark Materials trilogy who became the most high-profile critic of the safeguarding regime, told the BBC that he welcomed the proposed changes to the “absurd” plans.

But he said the idea remained “fundamentally unhealthy” and went on: “The whole thing seems to be based on the feeling that you can’t trust anyone, that everyone is a suspect until they’re proved innocent, and of course you can never entirely do that so everybody has to remain a suspect.”