I had always thought that over-vetting was a peculiarly Anglosaxon disease: it is only England, Australia and America who employ CRB checks ritually for all adults who have contact with children.

It seems that vetting is now seeping into Europe, through EU institutions. This email came from a French lady who works with Brussels organisations – and reports that they are now asking for CRB checks.

‘The European Community now ask their suppliers tendering for public contracts to supply a CRB. I had the case a few months ago: to sell eBooks to Bruxelles, surely it is essential to be CRB checked. I then met them in a conference and told them how strange their request was, and they said that they needed to select suppliers on something. Obviously, giving them a good price would not be good enough. One needs to be CRB checked.’