back to article Lords rule nurses blacklist 'unfair'

A Government blacklist of nurses and care workers deemed unfit to work with children and vulnerable adults has been ruled unfair by the House of Lords. The Royal College of Nursing has campaigned to end the provisional list - nurses put on the list are immediately banned from working with children or vulnerable adults without …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Robert Grant

    A ban is bad enough without deafening them as well!

    I'm so sorry.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It will go underground, into whispering campaigns

    If the list exists, whether they can legally use it or not, it will become used by a whispering campaign. You can't have a list that spreads potentially false accusations on a 'no smoke with fire' basis.

    'no smoke without fire' has no place in government.

    So the list has to treated as the slander it is.

  3. Steven Jones

    Well Done

    Well done to the Law Lords. As a general principle, any adverse quasi-judicial process like the "black-listing" of individuals which has a major impact on the ability of a person to live a normal life should be subject to appropriate safeguards. Some of the decisions made can have extremely far reaching effects comparable in impact to court decisions. I realise that some of the issues will involve security or confidential information, but the operation of systems based on "intelligence" alone under the opaque cloud of some government agency or other is a recipe for injustice. Subject to appropriate safeguards the processes involved should be as transparent as possible - at least to the individual concerned.

  4. Nigel Wright
    Thumb Up

    Good - common sense prevails

    Excellent. This sort of nonsense should be severely trampled on. All that matters is:

    1. Has the person in question being found guilty of a criminal offence that has a relevant bearing on the work they do.

    2. Has the person in question been severely reprimanded for a work related offence that may have a bearing on the work that they do.

    Opinion or suspicion is irrelevant and unsubstantiated...nothing more than malicious gossip or rumour at best.

  5. EvilGav

    Does this mean . . .

    . . . that eCRB checks are also unlawful, given that they can be used to ban someone from working based on an assertion, not on trial evidence.

    Similarly, no-one should be on the Sex Offenders register without having gone to trial, since they have no right of appeal.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Who thinks this type of list is OK

    And how do we get THEM on the list they can't get off of or even know they're on or have NO right to appeal. Where's that handbasket again...

  7. Pete James

    Another shining example

    This is just another manifestation of a Government policy to remove all elements of fairness and responsibility from any legal process. Who knows, maybe soon we'll see more legal reforms to finally get rid of any pretence of the need to emphatically prove the guilt of a person.

  8. Graham Marsden
    Thumb Up

    Hopefully...

    .... they'll also do something about the nonsense in the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act which allows someone to be blacklisted for "conduct involving sexually explicit images depicting violence against human beings (including possession of such images), if it appears to IBB [the Independant Barring Board] that the conduct is inappropriate"

  9. TeeCee Gold badge

    What's this?

    Presumption of innocence until guilt is proven? Sweaty Gordon and his minions will have no truck with this one rearing its ugly head again after they've gone to so much trouble to stamp it into the ground. I foresee a legislative change in the near future (and a few Law Lords getting their P45s).

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Graham Marsden

    That word "inappropriate" is one of the worst of weasel words, nearly devoid of any meaning except "I don't like you."

    When I was working I used to have regular run-ins with my sociopathic bosses, and "inappropriate" was often the justification they used for giving me the gears. As a result, I am very sensitive to the use of bullshit like it. The voice of experience -- with scars to prove it.

    For those in similar situations, a useful comeback is "Where does it say that? Or is this just something else you've made up on the spur of the moment?"

    Spare me "inappropriate".

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Carry on Nurse!

    A list of naughty nurses!

    Wonderful.

    wink wink, say no more....

  12. Rex Alfie Lee
    Happy

    Excellent

    Having worked in this environment for 30 years in Oz, this is a great move. It hasn't happened to me but I watched as a fellow worker was dispensed with without pay for 2 weeks & without any voice when the likelihood of any wrongdoing was somewhere in the nether regions. Good on Lords for having the awareness of the unfairness of these decisions. Now it needs to be replicated here in Oz.

This topic is closed for new posts.