The stand against “suspect first – smile later” legislation

PRESS RELEASE: 16 October 2006

The stand against “suspect first – smile later” legislation

Johnny Ball, Fay Weldon and child welfare experts join parents and professionals in backing a campaign challenging the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill, currently going through parliament.

The bill, which will mean that a third of working adults will be subject to ongoing vetting by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), was described by veteran scientist and kids TV favourite, Johnny Ball, as ‘awful legislation that does nothing to build confidence in young people or teachers’. The bill will forumalise and extend CRB checks on adults working with children – currently, those routinely vetted include cricket umpires and 16-year-olds who teach younger kids to read, as well as parents who volunteer in schools.

A new report, The Case Against Vetting: How the child protection industry is poisoning adult-child relations, is published today by the Manifesto Club – see: http://www.manifestoclub.com/hubs/vetting

Report author, Josie Appleton, argues: “People who work with children are now subject to more stringent criminal tests than those who sell explosives, or practice law.”
The report notes that there has been a 100% rise in annual CRB checks since 2002, and says that this massive increase in vetting is “destroying community life”, “corroding the impulse to volunteer” and “creating a climate of suspiscion between adults”. Not only this, but “the expansion of vetting will do nothing to protect those children who are really at risk.”

A letter has been published in today’s Times (UK) expressing concern about the expansion of vetting – see: www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,59-2405362,00.html. The text of the letter has been launched today as a public petition online – see: www.petitiononline.com/MCVet/petition.html

Signing the petition and letter is John Fitzpatrick, academic and lawyer, who says that child-adult relationships are at ‘crisis point’; and Mayor of Oxford, Jim Campbell, who fears we are creating a generation of children who will ‘suspect first and smile later’.

Notes to Editors:
Since 2002, The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) has carried out ten million checks on adults working with children, including everybody from parents helping out on school trips to football coaches; teenagers teaching younger kids to read or working as lifeguards. The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill will require 9.5 million adults to be vetted.
The report publication coincides with the publication of a letter in The Times (UK) rejecting the proposed expansion of vetting. Signatories to the letter include: JOHNNY BALL – children’s television presenter and mathematician; FAY WELDON – author; Dr EILEEN MUNRO – reader in social policy, LSE; Ed Straw – President Relate (1994-2000); government advisor on families; The Scottish Parent Teacher Council; Professor Simon Wessely – Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London; Kate Copstick – former Playschool presenter; JIM CAMPBELL – Mayor of Oxford
The Manifesto Club was initiated in January 2006 in London, with the aim of challenging cultural trends that restrain and stifle people’s freedom and trust. See www.manifestoclub.com
The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill will return to Parliament for a third reading on 23 October 2006.
For information, a full list of signatories and quotes, or to arrange an interview with report authors, contributors or supporters, contact James Panton, Manifesto Club Press officer on +44 (0) 7811 955 739 or press@manifestoclub.com.