Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether parental consent is necessary for local authorities to share live birth data with Sure Start Children’s Centres.

As set out in the Department for Education’s Sure Start Children’s Centres statutory guidance, health services and local authorities should share information, such as live birth data and data on families with children under five who have recently moved into the area, effectively with children’s centres on a regular basis. Local authorities and commissioners of health services should consider developing local partnership agreements or information sharing protocols to enable effective sharing of bulk data (such as live birth data), whilst ensuring that the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998, and other relevant legal provisions, are complied with.