No matter where you turn today you seem to need to have a Criminal Records check performed on you before you can do things. Without that fateful CRB document in your hand you can often find yourself restricted from working. Most recently the Shadow Minister for Children, Tom Loughton was stopped from being a Christmas Elf because he didn't have his piece of paper proving he wasn't a kiddie fiddler.It now appears that you're going to need a CRB check in order to become a driving instructor as well. According to the Driving Standards Agency they want to run full criminal history searches on anyone applying to be a driving instructor. Why? Surely the only people you don't want as driving instructors are those banned from driving and you're going to find that out when they apply anyway?
Yet another step on the way to a society predicated on the assumption of innocence to one based on the assumption of suspicion?
3 comments:
I would be interested to see what their justification for this is. After all it flies in the face of the 1974 Rehabilitation of Offenders act.
I suspect it is because they are likely to be alone teaching people under 18.
At the university were I work we can no longer interview prospective students on their own if they are under 18, which most of them are.
I'd guess it would be justified on the basis that most learners are 17 year-olds: if so a ban on anyone on the paedeophile register would be understandable.
Why a full records check is beyond me unless there's a problem out there with driving instructors and substance abuse. Afterall wouldn't a lot of people require a little help to cope with being in a car with a 17 year-old learner.
Post a Comment