On the front of the Daily Telegraph today is the news that Sir Roger Singleton, the chairman of the Independent Safeguarding Authority, has predicted that employers will come under pressure to register staff with the Government's anti-paedophile database, even if they have little contact with children.
According Sir Singleton, companies will fear losing business if they do not have their employees vetted and rival businesses may try and get ahead of the curve by advertising the fact that their staff have been cleared to work with children or vulnerable adults.
He suggests that:
"..there may be some categories who don't have to register but who might decide there is a commercial advantage in registering.
"The electrical contractor who wants school business may decide that although he is not required to have all his electricians registered with the ISA, there is a tendering advantage to doing so."
The corollary of this is that those companies, or self-employed workers who do not have themselves registered will be viewed with suspicion by parents and mistrusted by schools and youth groups.
So businesses will rush to register their workers and another government database will swell while doing untold damage to the perception of adults in the minds of children.
Whatever happened to a little trust?
By Dylan Sharpe