THE frustration experienced by Charlotte Sowerby in setting up her horse-drawn carriage business in Hawes will strike a chord with anybody whose business inspiration has been stymied by Government incompetence.

The problems of the Criminal Records Bureau, a new agency charged with vetting people who may come into contact with children or vulnerable people, have come to the fore over the issue of vetting those who work in schools in the wake of the Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman murders in Cambridgeshire.

Mrs Sowerby has been unable to work because the hackney carriage licence she needed was dependent on the checks being made. Although she was ready to operate her business as far back as the golden jubilee weekend in June, she only received clearance last week with the tourist season all but over and a year's income lost.

This is not the first time new Government agencies have been established and have come a cropper, with computer problems usually blamed for the problems. There appears to be an absence of efficient project management and early problems are not rectified - until the initial teething problems associated with any new system have grown to crisis proportions.

No doubt Mrs Sowerby doesn't have a strictly legal leg to stand on, but she ought to be able to sue the bureau for every penny of lost income.