According to a report in the Daily Telegraph analysis of the annual report of the Criminal Records Bureau shows that as many as 500 people could have received incorrect criminal records between April and December last year. The figure is more than twice the 204 people who were estimated to have been given the wrong [...]
Proposed reforms to Rehabilitation of Offenders Act criticised – Halsbury’s Law Exchange
May 3, 2013 from Leave a Comment
This article by Lucy Corin appears on the Halsebury Law Exchange website here Imagine you are a middle-aged man with a young family looking to change career to work as a primary school teacher. When you were 12 you took a chocolate bar from a shop. You learnt a salutary lesson and never repeated this [...]
Mid Staffs report: NHS culture was the culprit
February 11, 2013 from Leave a Comment
This extract has been taken from the The Guardian on 6th February 2013. The scale of Robert Francis’s report cannot be overestimated – and neither can the magnitude of cultural change it calls for In answering the question of why hundreds of patients died needlessly at the Mid Staffordshire trust in the years between 2005 [...]
Final Report Of The Independent Inquiry Into Care Provided By Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Published
February 6, 2013 from Leave a Comment
The final report into the care provided by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust was published today. The Inquiry Chairman, Robert Francis QC, concluded that patients were routinely neglected by a Trust that was preoccupied with cost cutting, targets and processes and which lost sight of its fundamental responsibility to provide safe care. Download Inquiry Report [...]
A breach of human rights: Court of Appeal rules CRB check law must go
February 5, 2013 from Leave a Comment
This item by Paul Peachey appeared in the Independent on 29th January A major overhaul of the criminal records regime could be required after three judges ruled that the current system breached human rights. [See judgement here] The Court of Appeal today said that a blanket requirement for some job seekers to supply details of [...]
Treating every allegation against Jimmy Savile as a ‘fact’ undermines justice
January 15, 2013 from 1 Comment
For a different slant on the Jimmy Saville Affair see the article written by Charles More published in the Daily Telegraph which is reproduced in full below The lead headline on the BBC website yesterday said: “Jimmy Savile scandal: Report reveals extent of abuse”. Well, I have read the whole of the report, and I [...]
The Professional Standards Authority invites the general public to share their experience of schemes run by BACP and Play Therapy UK
January 10, 2013 from Leave a Comment
The Professional Standards Authority are inviting comment on the applications for accreditation to the Accredited Voluntary Registers Scheme (for talking therapies) by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and Play Therapy UK by 16 the January 2013. The invitation states: We are interested to hear any information or experiences you have had with them which [...]
Garden Court Prison Law Team presents the fourth issue of its ‘Prison Law Bulletin’
November 30, 2012 from Leave a Comment
The Garden Court Prison Law Team have published the fourth issue of its ‘Prison Law Bulletin’. The Bulletin is published in blog and newsletter format and contains a round-up of recent case law, both domestic & international. It sometimes features a comment and analysis section on a “hot topic”. This issue looks at the latest developments in [...]
Police to pilot new scheme through which information about a person’s alleged violent offending can be released to their partners
March 5, 2012 from Leave a Comment
Four police forces will pilot a new domestic violence disclosure scheme, the home secretary announced today. Police in Greater Manchester, Gwent, Nottinghamshire and Wiltshire will run a 12 month trial of the domestic violence disclosure scheme (DVDS) from the summer of 2012. The pilot scheme will test the methods used by police to help victims [...]
Judge critical of employers decision to refer complaint to the police
February 27, 2012 from Leave a Comment
The Court of Appeal recently considered a case involving two experienced nurses who were employed by the Suffolk Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust who were dismissed for alleged alleged gross misconduct arising out of the way in which they handled a patient known a patient suffering from severe dementia. The full judgement can be found here. [...]
Manifesto Club discover that many people who do not work directly with children are still required to submit to a CRB check
February 25, 2012 from Leave a Comment
A Manifesto Club report, Vetting Tree Surgeons, finds that nearly a million checks a year are being carried out by local authorities – at a cost of £45 million. Councils CRB checked hundreds of parent volunteers in schools, including parents listening to children read or helping out at the school disco. They also checked tree surgeons, [...]
Abused adults to receive £8 million in compensation
September 19, 2011 from Leave a Comment
The BBC have reported that adults with learning disabilities at the centre of a care abuse case in Cornwall will receive about £8m in compensation. The High Court made the decision after 165 former residents of Falmouth’s Budock Hospital claimed compensation for failings including physical abuse. The claim was brought against the former Cornwall Partnership [...]
People working with children and vulnerable adults can now be checked in Jersey for criminal records.
April 11, 2011 from Leave a Comment
People working with children and vulnerable adults can now be checked in Jersey for criminal records. The checks will be carried out in the island by the Jersey Vetting Bureau. It involves filling out an application form and showing proof of identity. Kevin McKerrell, from the Jersey Vetting Bureau, said: “This marks the start of [...]
Review on criminal records regime published
February 14, 2011 from Leave a Comment
The independent review by Sunita Mason on criminal records regime titled A Common Sense Approach – which FACT contributed to, has been published. In announcing the Review the Home Office said … “The first phase of this two phase review focused on issues concerned with the extent and demands of pre-employment vetting systems and the [...]
Teachers must be free to touch children says Gove as he vows to restore common sense in schools
January 8, 2011 from Leave a Comment
Michael Gove has said music teachers must be free to touch children to show them techniques, after a performers’ group said all physical contact should be avoided. The Musicians’ Union sparked outrage when they released a video, supported by the NSPCC, telling teachers not to get too close to youngsters – amid fears they could [...]