Con Dems halt the Vetting and Barring Scheme – and good on them

I didn’t see myself congratulating the Coalition for anything – especially not this early on. But they appear to have heeded my advice. A few weeks I offered them some pointers on what a real agenda for liberty would look like. Amongst other things I told them to scrap the vetting and barring scheme, aimed allegedly at preventing unsuitable people from working with kids. And while they havent quite scrapped it, they have made a substantial step in the right direction, halting its implementation while  its provisions are reviewed.

As I said at the time the VBS is a serious, serious threat to liberty, and to the well being of innocent people. Under its provisions teachers and other youth workers can be thrown out of their jobs nad have their careers ended over unproven allegations. The schemes official guidance says that decisions will be taken on the “balance of probabilities”.

Equally, the Vetting and Barring Scheme’s own guidance makes clear that it can ruin people’s lives careers on the flimsiest of pretexts. VBS bureaucrats can, in theory, decide, after the event, that any kind of conduct or behaviour is “relevant conduct”  if it indicates a risk of future harm – regardless of whether it breaks any kind of law or regulation. It tramples all over the principle of residual freedom – the idea that people have the right to do what is not specifically forbidden. Those who work with young people will simply have no idea what they can do and what they cannot.

While most Con Dem actions have involved shitting on the vulnerable, this move does in fact show a degree of bravery. It is relatively difficult, in this climate, to stand up against anything that seems to be in the cause of child protection. Yet as a judge recently put it “public safety is not the supreme law”. The desire to protect people from harm cannot justify riding roughshod over our most cherished liberties.