§ Mr. Michael MorrisTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will extend the arrangements for the disclosure of police information about those who apply to work with children, which are currently available to local authorities and to voluntary organisations.
§ Mr. HurdWe have today announced that, with the agreement of the Association of Chief Police Officers and representatives of the voluntary sector, three pilot schemes are to be set up to allow voluntary organisations access to police information about those who apply to work with children. One of the schemes will cover, principally, national child care organisations, the other two will be based locally in Dudley and Lancashire.
The national scheme will be hosted by the National Council of Voluntary Child Care Organisations and, although it will cover largely national child care organisations, it would not exclude other nationally based organisations.
The two local schemes, hosted by the Dudley Council for Voluntary Service and the Community Council for Lancashire will aim to provide a service for locally organised voluntary groups.
The three new schemes, which will be funded by the Government during the pilot phase, will extend to voluntary organisations the arrangements now available to local authorities and the health service which will allow them access to police information about those seeking to work in posts which would give them substantial and unsupervised access to children.