EXPERTS HAVE warned that new elements introduced into the policing bill will force professionals such as doctors and social workers to ‘betray’ vulnerable young people.

The bill is expected to be debated in the House of Lords this week with some ministers wanting to form a rule that obliges public agencies such as schools and GP surgeries to disclose information about service users to reduce serious violence.

Up to 665 GPs, nurses, social, youth and outreach workers and teachers have all warned in a letter to the Home Secretary Priti Patel that the “oppressive” bill will force those in positions of trust to betray the vulnerable people they serve through the use of Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.

Signatories of the letter are “appalled” by the proposed reforms and believe they will only “directly conflict with our duties and will actively put people we work with in harm’s way”.

The letter reads: “We believe that this bill will hinder our ability as frontline workers to effectively support the people with whom we work by eroding relationships of trust and duties of confidentiality. Most importantly, it will expand the criminalisation, surveillance, and punishment of already-over-policed communities.”

Fears have grown for many who now believe that they will be complicit in forcing people to hand over their personal data which will go against their duties as trusted professionals.

A further report has also highlighted how vulnerable women will become more prone to threats of violence, abuse and exploitation.

Jemima Olchawski, the CEO of Agenda, told the Guardian that vulnerable young women are at risk of being cast into a system that “punishes them for their response to trauma”.

She added: “Once in the criminal justice system they have limited access to specialist support and are left to deal with their entrenched and complex experiences of trauma, putting them at heightened risk of repeated offending.”

Gavin Moorghen, of the British Association of Social Workers, said: “The duty of confidentiality is crucial to our ability to protect people’s dignity and privacy, foster relationships of trust, and deliver high quality care.

“The policing bill may soon force us to betray the hard-earned trust and relationships we have built with young people, as well as our professional duties, by requiring us to be complicit in their criminalisation, surveillance and punishment. The only effective approach to serious violence is to focus on the root causes such as poverty, racism, and other forms of structural injustice.”

Almost 600,000 people have signed a petition opposing the bill proposals and further 30,000 people have written directly to the prime minister ahead of the debate this week.