Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure (a) information about dangerous individuals who would be a risk to children are identified in the social service system and (b) that that information is shared amongst relevant authorities; and whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of a national database to record previous involvement of individuals with social services.

Ensuring that vulnerable children remain protected is a top priority for the government.

The multi-agency statutory guidance document ‘Working Together (2018)’ sets out what professionals and organisations need to do to safeguard children, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2.

Working Together (2018), is clear that practitioners should be proactive in sharing information as early as possible to help identify, assess and respond to risks or concerns about the safety and welfare of children. Practitioners should be alert to sharing important information about any adults with whom that child has contact, which may impact the child’s safety or welfare.

Section 11 of the Children Act, 2004 places duties on a range of organisations, agencies and individuals to ensure their functions, and any services that they contract out to others, are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Many of the agencies subject to the section 11 duty are members of the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), including the police, prison and probation services. MAPPA should work together with ‘duty to co-operate agencies’ to manage the risks posed by violent and sexual offenders living in the community in order to protect the public and should work closely with the safeguarding partners over services to commission locally.

The government is introducing measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, introduced in the House of Commons on 9 March 2021, to clarify the information sharing powers of those agencies subject to the duty to co-operate under MAPPA.

Furthermore, provisions in the landmark Domestic Abuse Bill, currently passing through parliament, will contribute further to the management of offenders. Perpetrators who are subject to a Domestic Abuse Protection Order are required to notify the police of their name and address and any changes to this information. Failure to notify constitutes a breach punishable by up to 5 years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both.

The government has not conducted an assessment of the potential merits of a national database.