MINISTERS are facing a rethink over a flagship bill being proposed to protect children and vulnerable adults in the wake of the Soham murders.

MSPs yesterday made it plain they were considering calling for the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Bill to be dumped because it would create a vast, unproductive bureaucracy, deter volunteering, and divert attention from more pressing threats.

Holyrood's education committee, which is expected to give a crucial verdict on whether the bill should proceed, heard that it focused disproportionately on "stranger danger", when most child abuse happened in the home.

Voluntary groups and Scotland's children's commissioner also warned it would create a climate of fear around working with children, as well as giving parents a false sense of security.

Rather than rush it through before next May's election, MSPs heard ministers should shelve it and ref lect on whether a new approach was required.

The bill is the Scottish Executive's response to the Bichard Inquiry into Ian Huntley's murder of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2004, which calls for a vetting and barring scheme for those working with children and vulnerable adults.

If passed into law, the bill could mean around a million people would have to be vetted before getting a job with or doing voluntary work for children or vulnerable adults.

Any criminal record would be exposed, even it was irrelevant to working with the vulnerable.

Dr Jonathan Sher, of Children in Scotland, urged MSPs to step back from the bill: "By putting the focus and resources and attention on to stranger danger, we're masking a much larger, more serious problem in society."

Almost all 20 witnesses before the committee praised parts of the bill, especially replacing multiple disclosure checks with a single transferable "passport".

However, Judith Gillespie, of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, said the disproportionate checks would drive away potential volunteers, leaving pupils with impoverished childhoods.

Jim Duffy, chief executive of the Scout Association's Scottish Council, said: "We are getting to the point in the voluntary sector where someone is a paedophile until they can prove they're not. It's time to take stock and askwhat are we really getting into."

Wendy Alexander, the former Labour minister, said the committee had a choice - to put through the third law for dealing with stranger danger in three years, or try a different route, such as amending other laws.

It is understood Holyrood's finance committee will today savage the Scottish Executive's cost estimates for the bill. Its idea that a new computer system to handle a million disclosure checks could be created for GBP2m will be attacked as wholly unrealistic.