HC Deb 24 February 2003 vol 400 c359W
Ms Shipley

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) which agencies and organisations have access to the Department of Health's computerised database of deaths and serious injuries of children; [94621]

(2) what use is made of the information on the Department of Health's computerised database of deaths and serious injuries of children. [94627]

Jacqui Smith

No outside organisations have routine access to the database. However, data derived from this database and its predecessors have been made available to bona fide researchers and others with a legitimate basis for their inquiry.

The data will inform policy development and the biennial overview of Serious Case Reviews (the first of which was published in June 2002), thus ensuring that important lessons from case reviews are put into the professional and public domain without compromising the confidentiality of vulnerable children, such as siblings of children who have died as a result of child abuse.