Tag Archives: vetting and barring scheme

Tom Brake

Tom Brake MP writes… A landmark achievement in fight for our civil liberties

By Tom Brake | Tue 1st May 2012 - 4:13 pm

Today the Protection of Freedoms Bill became an Act: a landmark for the campaign to roll back Labour’s surveillance state. Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for this piece of legislation, proposing a “Freedom Bill” more than five years ago when Nick Clegg was the party’s Home Affairs Spokesman.

The Act will protect millions of people from unwarranted state intrusion in their private lives, building on some of the things we’ve already achieved like the ending of ID cards and the destruction of the National Identity Register.

I just want to highlight a couple of things that will now happen. …

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Mark Pack

Freedoms Bill published: now you can marry at 6:01pm

By Mark Pack | Fri 11th February 2011 - 10:25 pm

Earlier today, the Protection of Freedoms Bill was published which, in the words of Lib Dem MP Tom Brake, “brings to fruition proposals which were first drawn up by Nick Clegg four years ago, and demonstrates our commitment to rolling back unnecessary and intrusive laws introduced by Labour”.

Key provisions of the Bill include the enactment of some previously announced decisions alongside some new, additional proposals:

  • an end to the routine monitoring of 9.3 million people under the radically reformed vetting and barring scheme
  • millions of householders protected from town hall snoopers checking their bins or school catchment area
  • the scrapping of Section 44

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Mark Pack

Criminal records regime to be reviewed

By Mark Pack | Fri 22nd October 2010 - 1:25 pm

The headlines have been caught by the Home Office’s formal annoucement today of a review into the vetting and barring system:

The review will examine whether the scheme is the best way to protect children and vulnerable people and, if so, how many roles it should cover.

Home Secretary Theresa May suspended the “draconian” scheme in June.

Launched in 2009, critics said it cast too wide a net and risked poisoning the relationship between generations.

Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone said: “While it is vital that we protect the vulnerable, this scheme as it stands is not a proportionate response.

“There should be a presumption

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Helen Duffett

Children’s operations cancelled over non-transferable CRB checks

By Helen Duffett | Fri 26th February 2010 - 3:23 pm

A report by the Royal College of Surgeons, published today, reveals that children’s NHS operations are being cancelled because of the chaotic introduction of new Government safeguarding regulations. From the report:

Overzealous interpretation of the requirements by NHS Trusts and long delays in the system mean that NHS surgeons cannot move between Trusts quickly enough to deal with rare cases, of which there are many in children, and to cover absences. The RCS is calling for immediate roll out of passport-style arrangements that allow NHS staff who have already received an enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check for one Trust

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Recent Comments

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    Another vote of thanks to the author of this well-written article! And thanks also Mark for the mention of stage two of the inland alternative to the main line...
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    This is a great article by Mark Corner. This article might also be of interest ( and the Mark referred to is myself). Yes, there is a debate about the c...
  • Jennie
    ... nice of you to let hosts of glee know and get permission from the venue before announcing this......
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