Children Bill [HL]

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 2:30 pm on 24 May 2004.

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Photo of Baroness Walmsley Baroness Walmsley Shadow Minister, Home Affairs 2:30, 24 May 2004

I should like to speak to Amendment No. 135 in my name. It seeks to ensure that those responsible for the operation of any and all databases have a clear and unambiguous duty to protect children and to promote their welfare in all their operations.

The amendment was suggested to us by the Children's Society, which is concerned to ensure that it is a statutory requirement upon those responsible for the operation of the database to safeguard children and to promote their welfare. That would be in keeping with the Government's aim to legislate for improved information-sharing, as set out in Every Child Matters, which stated:

"The key is to ensure children receive services at the first onset of problems, and to prevent any children slipping through the net".

It would also be in keeping with the intention that information-sharing links with the new duties be established to co-operate, to improve well-being—in Clause 6—and to safeguard and promote welfare, in Clause 7.

Under the provisions of Clause 8—should it go through your Lordships' House unamended—databases may be established and operated nationally, regionally or locally. It may therefore be that such a database is established and operated by a local authority which currently has statutory duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need and at risk, and will have more general duties under proposals under Clauses 6 and 7. However, it is also possible that larger regional databases or a single national database could be established without the same clear existence of a safeguarding duty upon them. The amendment would ensure the necessary consistency and clarity that any and all databases will have a duty to protect children and promote their welfare in all their operations, whether they have duties laid upon them under Clauses 6 and 7 or not.

It is vitally important that the job of the data manager on a database of this kind is clearly understood to be one that will routinely involve the making of judgments. That will affect the rights, safety and well-being of children. It would be a matter of great concern if the operation of a database were thought to be a matter of mere technical competence in operating the system and complying with guidelines or, indeed, if it were thought that all situations and judgments to be faced could be anticipated and effectively regulated by guidance.

Making clear the statutory duty upon database operators will have a clear impact on how the database systems are constructed and operated, influence the skills sought and training needed for the staff to operate them and provide an unambiguous objective when operators are faced with difficult judgments about recording, disclosure and access.