Striking the Right Balance between Privacy and Public Protection

[Ian G Batten]

On Sun, 27 Oct 2002, David Hansen wrote:

> We all know the result, another Home Office balls up. I do know people
> who have suffered this nonsense, including people who have been told
> that they must supply details of their driving licence. The fact that
> they don't have a driving licence seems to totally fox the wankers
> "running" the mess.

The disturbing thing for the school that my children are at is that
their supply of volunteers for the classroom has evaporated.  It's a
90-per-year primary, and the sum total of new applicants to help this
year is two: my wife, and the mother of a friend of my elder daughter
who my wife has strongarmed.  I suspect this is mirrored elsewhere.  The
form for CRB certificates is lengthy, contains extremely intrusive
questions and is simply complex to fill in: my wife, a bank manager who
deals with paperwork daily, spent an evening on it.  The school
encourages parents who have, perhaps, literacy issues to be classroom
helpers, as there is an overall social good there: not anymore, they
don't.

And that's before we start on the fact that a spent conviction for
shoplifting twenty years ago is no threat to anyone, and yet many people
would not want to reveal that to their child's teachers.

A typical example of Blunkett's work: ill-thought out, blindly asusming
government has the answer, lacking in any sort of risk assessment and
driven by spite and public opinion.  I've never voted anything other
than Labour in my life, but given the choice between Blunkett and
Letwin, suddenly I have an urge to understand more about Duncan Smith.

ian