IT IS absolutely vital that people who want to work in jobs where they will come into contact with children or vulnerable adults are very thoroughly vetted beforehand.

There is a process for doing this. Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks are routinely carried out by police on anyone who wants to become a teacher or carer, or a school or nursery assistant, as well as on some council staff, people working in healthcare, and those who want to foster or adopt.

They are a vital way of screening out anyone who has a past history of behaviour which suggests they should not be allowed to work with vulnerable people. Given the importance of these checks, they must be done properly.

We accept that North Yorkshire Police should not rush them, therefore. But even so, taking more than 28 days on average to complete checks that some forces can do in less than two days is unacceptable.

It isn’t only us saying that. The force’s Deputy Chief Constable Lisa Winward agrees. “This is not an acceptable level of service,” she said.

The deputy chief constable says recent staff losses have led to a backlog, but that this is being tackled.

We hope so. It isn’t only the inconvenience caused to people waiting to start jobs. Andrea Dudding of York Unison points out that there is also a danger that people could be allowed to begin work without the checks being completed.

That would be worse than unacceptable. it would have the potential to be downright dangerous.

The police must tackle this issue as a matter of urgency.