Deputy Prime Minster Nick Clegg announced that more than nine million people working or volunteering with children and vulnerable adults will no longer need to register and be monitored by the state following a scaling back of the Vetting and Barring scheme (VBS). Criminal record checks will be portable between jobs to cut down on needless bureaucracy. “The new system will be less bureaucratic and less intimidating. It will empower organisations to ask the right questions and make all the appropriate pre-employment checks, and encourage everyone to be vigilant,” Clegg said. The plans are part of a new Protection of Freedoms Bill and update the VBS, which was due to start in July. The bill includes an end to a requirement for those working or volunteering with vulnerable groups to register with the VBS and then be continuously monitored by the Independent Safeguarding Authority, and a halt to employers knowingly requesting criminal records checks on individuals when they are not entitled to them.
“The Freedoms Bill will protect millions of people from state intrusion in their private lives and mark a return to common sense government. It delivers on our commitment to restore hard-won British liberties with sweeping reforms that will end the unnecessary scrutiny of law-abiding individuals,” said Clegg.
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