This is the most paranoid and idiotic policy in a long line of paranoid and idiotic policies from this government, and shame on the NSPCC for caving in.

Well…. at least Labour have ensured no-one can ever accuse them of under-reacting.

The NSPCC didn’t `cave in’. They are in favour of this kind of thing.

And this is a responsible, measured way of legislating? The sheer bloody incompetence beggars belief, firstly by pressing ahead with the hugely intrusive, invasive and also plain impractical, expensive and unpopular ISA vetting scheme, and now the adjustments on the hoof, cack-handedly trying to settle issues that the costly inquiry you’ve just announced is meant to decide upon.

Mr Balls stressed that it would not apply where, for example, parents agreed to give friends’ children “a lift to school or to Cubs”. “Nor will it cover instances where parents work with children at school or a youth club on ‘an occasional or one-off basis’.

Interviews on a recent Today programme confirmed that private arrangements between, say, one family and another will not be subject to these checks, but an arrangement between, say, a family and a junior football club will be.

We can be assured that little Jimmy won’t be abused during his lift to Cubs by that kind Mr Huntley because that informal arrangement doesn’t need to be supervised by the state. No, it is only if Mr Huntley volunteers with the Cubs, rather than directly with the family, that he should be checked by the ISA… wtf?

I thought school teachers and classroom assistants were already vetted:

“A classroom supervisor had sex with a 15-year-old pupil at a school where three teachers had already been convicted of having relationships with pupils, a court heard yesterday. Headlands school, in Bridlington, east Yorkshire, had been blighted by ‘sexually inappropriate conduct’, Helen Hendry, prosecuting, said.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/sep/16/teacher-accused-sex-pupil

As for GPs:

“A GP from East Yorkshire who admitted affairs with a patient and a co-worker has been found guilty of misconduct. Dr Michael Rusling, 48, had sex with a grandmother and an employee in his consultation room at the Sydenham House Group Practice in Hull.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/8236963.stm

It must be something about the air in East Yorkshire.

Years ago, the BBC’s Charles Wheeler in retirement pointed out that the numbers of children murdered or harmed by sex perverts was a small fraction of the numbers of children killed or injured in traffic accidents on the public highways.

Following the logic of banning folks from contact with children on the basis of “police intelligence” in addition to previous convictions for sex offences, motor vehicle drivers should be banned if considered likely to become involved in traffic accidents. Alternatively, we could bring back the 4mph speed limit and the requirement that every motor vehicle on the public highway is preceeded by someone carrying a red flag. I feel confident that would stop most traffic accidents.

Of course, there is also probably a good case for proscribing the Catholic Church.

Bob B, very good points.

Indeed, retired Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Stevenson, who investigated the Soham murders, wrote in a recent Times article, “How do we prevent such chance encounters happening? We can’t. No amount of legislation, record keeping or checking could prevent this type of crime completely. Thankfully it is extremely rare. Children are far more likely to be killed by a family member or on the roads.”

And, if I recall correctly, children are more likely to be abused by a family member than someone unknown. Perhaps would-be parents should be checked before conceiving.