THE new Home Office Vetting and Barring Scheme is welcome in two ways.

Firstly, anything that helps protect our children is clearly beneficial. It is simply not acceptable for people like Ian Huntley to slip through the net - the holes in the net must be closed.

Yet, in closing those holes, ordinary people should not have put their lives on hold for months while their employers wait for their clearance to come through. The service must be efficient.

Secondly, the scheme is welcome because it is based in Darlington and not in London.

In his 2004 Budget, Chancellor Gordon Brown announced he was implementing the report by Sir Michael Lyons that at least 20,000 civil service jobs should be devolved to the regions from London. This, Sir Michael said, would save on salary and property costs, and it would also do a little bit to prevent the capital from over-crowding and over-heating.

So far, here in the North-East, we've seen precious little of that devolution - only about 800 NHS jobs in the Business Services Authority which came to Newcastle in 2005.

Yet with regular and rapid rail and air links to London and with the continued growth of electronic communication, there is absolutely no reason why many more civil service jobs should not be located in the North-East, where the quality of life is higher.

Indeed, Sir Michael said 20,000 was only his lowest estimate: 60,000 was quite possible, he said.

Coincidentally, Sir Michael has just been made chairman of the BBC. In 2004, the BBC announced it was going to relocate 1,800 jobs - including Radio 5 Live, the sports department and the children's department - to Manchester. This hasn't yet happened. It will be fascinating to see whether Sir Michael really does believe in the advantages of regional devolution.