It seems the Blair government's attacks on civil liberties will continue even during the PM's farewell tour. The Times today has printed a leaked plan from the Home Office violent crime unit which if true is almost beyond belief.

The proposal is to force frontline public sector workers to report people they merely think might one day commit a violent offence. This speculation will then be collated by a national agency and shared amongst a range of bodies such as local authorites and the police.

The proposal includes terms like "sufficiently concerned" which sound good. However if staff have a statutory duty to make such reports then they will obviously cover themselves by reporting more rather than less. Remember that we're not just talking about specially trained personnel. We're talking about anyone in the public services who comes into contact with us.

If this monstrous scheme goes ahead it will in effect create a national database of gossip, hearsay and uninformed speculation - some of which will undoubtedly be malicious. Once on the database you'll probably never get off. An unfounded accusation could follow you for the rest of your life.

Consider: you've had a hard day and get into an argument with some petty jobsworth official. You raise your voice, perhaps say something silly. The official now has a legal obligation to report you as a potential violent offender. Two years later you apply for a job in a library but get rejected because the local authority computer flags you as a possible danger to the public.

The proposed new "multi-agency body" would in effect be a low-tech Department of Precrime.

It must be stressed that at the moment this is simply a leak of a set of high level proposals. It isn't official policy - then again, it hasn't been formally rejected.

What will probably happen is that Brown's government will "look again" at the plans and take action to "ensure safeguards". With a few token changes the basic scheme will probably still go ahead.

That's not acceptable. Safeguards on an idea like this are like a sticking plaster on an open vein. This plan must be scrapped totally and without reservation.


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Labels: civil liberties