Baroness VICKERSMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will give a list of local authorities to whom a circular was sent in April 1974 in regard to the keeping of a register of non-accidental injuries to children; and whether they will now state how many registers are in fact being kept and how many cases have been registered by each authority.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, copies of the memorandum on non-accidental injury to children issued in April 1974 were sent to all local and health authorities in England. This circular recommended the establishment of area review committees, and invited them to consider setting up central records of cases of children in their area who had been injured or were at risk of injury by their parents. As I said in my reply to the noble Baroness on the 30th March, only a few of the 100 area review committees have not set up central records. The total number of cases registered is not recorded centrally.
Baroness VICKERSMy Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for that reply —and I hope he will ensure that those who have not registered already will register in future—perhaps I may ask him to tell me one or two facts. Are the doctors using the register? So often parents take their child to one hospital after the first battering and to another hospital after the next, and there is 914 therefore no knowledge of the case between the various hospitals. Could the noble Lord also say whether he thinks it might be advisable to ask the parents whether they would like the child either to be fostered for a period of time or, perhaps, even adopted in view of the small number of children now available for adoption?
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, if I may take those questions in reverse order, with regard to the last one the answer is, " Yes ", because this becomes part of the social work process. When a child is at risk or has in fact suffered non-accidental injury, some consideration has to be given to the child's future, so this becomes part of the social work process. With regard to doctors, the answer is that they are using the register very well: and even though a child may go from one place to another, this is reported back to the central register, so in point of fact one knows what is happening, The noble Baroness asked whether I could give her some facts. In answer to a circular issued in 1974 for information, local authorities notified the numbers of cases registered. These answers showed that in 97 English authorities—and the noble Baroness will recall that there are 100 of them—which account for 90 per cent. of the child population, 5,700 cases, I regret to say 40 of them fatal, of known or suspected non-accidental injury were recorded as coming to their notice in the last nine months of 1974.
§ Lord ELTONMy Lords, when the noble Lord said that children at risk who have moved have their movements referred to the central register, I take it he was referring to the central register of the area concerned. As there is a large number of areas, is there also a method of keeping track of children at risk who move from one area to another?
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord. This is what I meant—movement within a particular area. There is no central register, as I said, so far as the whole country is concerned. The reason why that is not encouraged is that if a child moves from one area to another area and has suffered from non-accidental injury or is at risk, or is considered to be suspect, 915 he onus is on the person or persons in one area to notify those in the other area. If we had a central register recording information from all the 100 areas it would mean notifying the central body and the central body then having to notify the new area. We feel, rightly or wrongly, that it is probably quicker for one area to notify another.
§ Lord HAILSHAM of SAINT MARYLEBONEMy Lords, are these arrangements for England and Wales only, or do they apply equally to other parts of the United Kingdom'?
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, I am most grateful to the noble and learned Lord. My information is that what is operating in England also operates in Scotland and Wales, and I understand that in point of fact the same conditions apply there.
§ Lord HAILSHAM of SAINT MARYLEBONEAnd in Northern Ireland?
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLI do not know, my Lords.