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Sir Ian McKellen slams government's theatre vetting scheme
8 Feb 2010Sir Ian McKellen might not have become an actor if a new government vetting scheme was in place when he was a child, he said today.
He told the BBC's Panorama programme that if he had not been able to perform as a child alongside adults in small voluntary theatres, "the 15-year-old Ian McKellen would be absolutely miserable and wouldn't have grown up to be this person today".
The new Vetting and Barring Scheme will mean that nine million adults will have to be registered with a new agency, the Independent Safeguarding Authority, before they are allowed to work "frequently or intensively" with children or vulnerable adults.
The combined pressure from the scheme and the separate regulations governing the use of children in performances has led some small theatres to reconsider including children in their performances.
Sir Ian is patron of the Little Theatre Guild - the UK's club of more than 100 independently controlled amateur theatres, which he says are struggling with meeting lots of new Government regulation all at once.
Members of the guild say that the new scheme, coupled with a Government proposal to extend chaperoning requirements to include rehearsals and not simply dress rehearsals and performances, will mean small theatres will struggle to meet the requirements necessary to keep children in their performances.
On the extension of chaperoning, Sir Ian said: "I would think there was no need for that. Good practice is that no child should ever be in a one to one relationship during rehearsal period. There doesn't seem to me to be any danger."
He added: "People are all there for the love of it - that's what amateur means. It's a very family atmosphere and there's never in the last 50 years been any hint of wrongdoing and so it's trying to put right a problem that doesn't really exist."
Meg Hillier, the junior Home Office minister responsible for the scheme, told the programme: "I do not believe there will be fewer volunteers as a result of the Independent Safeguarding Authority scheme."
She added that it was "the rightful role of Government, drawing a line about how far we go, but I think it's fair to have that line when you give your children over to people in a professional setting".
* Panorama: Are You a Danger to Kids?, BBC One, tonight at 8.30pm.
Reader views (3)
@Liberal and Proud, The problem with this legislation is that it is not a police check, but a check based on unproven items, that you, person being checked, will not have the opportunity to challenge. This legislation would NOT have caught Huntley as it would only have been his partner that would be checked. As for Nothing to Hide - Nothing to fear, why don't you post under your forename like John of Bromley and me?
- Jim, London, 09/02/2010 11:09
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John, Bromley - if you're too stupid to read the legislation and understand the system, then you probably shouldn't be anywhere near kids anyway.
Volunteers don't have to pay for registration. Organisations employing volunteers don't have to pay for legislation.
If you don't want a police check - the question has to be asked - why? Something to hide?
There is an ethical issue about whether we as a society should be assuming guilt of every adult prior to checking, but everyone who has ever slagged off a social worker, or criticised an organisation for not checking and allowing someone in who shouldn't be (Ian Huntley is only one extereme example) - then you are to blame for this legislation - hysteria breeds hysteria.
- Liberal And Proud, London, UK, 09/02/2010 09:44
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Stupid Meg Hillier starts talking about the professional Theatre even though McKellen makes it clear he's talking about amateur theatre. And she doesn't believe there will be fewr volunteers. Well my group will no longer do plays with youngsters and many otheres are going the same way. By the way we're talking of all up to 17! Surely better that there incolved in amateur theatre than walking drunk around our town centres.
- John, Bromley, 08/02/2010 16:52
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