Plans for a database containing information on every child in
England would be dropped by a Conservative government, the party
will announce at its annual conference tomorrow.
Labelling the £224m national
Contactpoint database "dangerous", the party said it wants to
"protect vulnerable children" by removing the risk of sensitive
data being lost. It is proposing to put the data on smaller, local
databases that are targeted at children considered to be at
risk.
Contactpoint is due to be launched next year and will hold the
names, ages and addresses of 11 million children, as well as the
names of their GPs, parents and schools. The information will be
available to workers in the health, social care and education
sectors.
The announcement will be made by Michael Gove, shadow secretary
of state for schools.
He said, "We are taking this action because we are determined to
protect vulnerable children from abuse. Contactpoint would increase
that risk.
"The government has proved that it cannot be trusted to set up
large databases and cannot promise that inappropriate people would
not be able to access the database. It would be irresponsible to
implement something that is such a danger to our children."
At-risk children moving across local authority boundaries would
be traced via the professionals at their previous address, he
said.