Rant mode! I have two 20 yr olds living in the house, both really want to work, rather than eek out an existance on benefits. One has a possibility of a 0 hours contract in a Childrens Day Nursery, great in itself. However, the owners have sent for her CRB, then informed her that they are going to take it out of her wages. She already has a CRB from elsewhere, which is obviously not valid with this employer. She was not given the option, no advance notice, the owners just did the CRB, and she is on a trial with them, so if she objects, no work, if she doesnt object, she pays for something for nothing. Nice. The second has just been offered a job via a large National Recruitment Agency @ a manufacturing plant, global blue chip company. However, he has to provide his own safety shoes, because apparently the ones they provide are so bad they are worse than useless and painful. Great. Welcome to modern slavery. Why can these people get away with such things. It is absolutely disgusting. Plus there is NOTHING that they can do about it, nor anyone else really, the employers can just do as they please. Rant off.

Yes, it is peculiar that many employers want enhanced, with barred-list check, for jobs where no enhanced checks are needed (or legal). I guess employers are not that bothered about legality, otherwise large supermarkets would not check via DBS scotland (from which checks come that are not carried out using the same procedure as in England). Weird. However, I wandered into the DBD Scotland website and asked them a question: is it legal for an employer to get checks, via you, for an employee resident in England. Answer: No It's that old English employer arrogance again! https://www.gov.uk/discl...g-service-check/overview

I'm entirely with you Paul, but it's difficult to expand and discuss without referencing politics. I do fear for the UK in general given that both major parties seem to be drifting further to the right, while some with hitherto 'extremist' views are being accepted into the mainstream. It is also unfortunate that TUs have become more and more demonsided and subject to punitive legislation over the last several decades - not that they were without fault. A reduction in red tape (the red tape challenge) was IMHO never going to derive benefit for the working man. Yes, we need full employment, but not at any cost. Whatever the outcome of the forthcoming election, this swing to the right does not bode well for the Country or its working population. We in Scotland, Wales etc. do at least have credible alternatives.

Raciest.... not resist of course.

Chaps, Allow me to enlighten you: In Britain there are people (far more that you might imagine and certainly in your town!) held against their will, working for nothing and living in circumstances that would bring about legal action by the RSPCA if they were dogs.

The problem is that the poor ones are undercutting the good ones and driving them to the wall. Also with the use of agency staff and outsourcing, many household names are firmly amongst what you & I would consider "poor" (read bad, immoral whatever).

Unknown, to most, the gov has two measures of life expectancy. HLE (healthy life expectancy) LE (life expectancy) HLE in one region, for males, is 52 years. In the entire country, the HLE for females is lower than for males. Now, about state pension age.... I have always been a cynic with regards to employers. I have rarely been wrong. The bottom line is always money, never life.

The challenge for the HSE is that as their resources grow smaller in relation to the numbers of firms breaching H&S then they become more involved in prosecutions and less involved in risk reduction at the front end. We will have to wait and see what happens with the accident rates. Regards