Creeping (and creepy) CRB checks

Civitas, 3 November 2010

The Sunday Times (pay only), we learn via Peter Risdon, has a report about 6th formers having to apply for Criminal Record Bureau checks to attend college courses. Some have been refused on the basis of minor offences (such as shoplifting) committed when they were children. This is another illustration of what Frank Furedi and Jennie Bristow argued in the Civitas report, Licensed to Hug: CRB checks are now more threatening to young people than protective, and are significantly reducing opportunities for many ordinary people to participate in public life.