The Foster Placement (Children) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Retention and confidentiality of records

14.—(1) The record for a foster parent or other person compiled under regulation 13, and any entry relating to him in the register maintained under regulation 12, shall be retained for at least 10 years from the date on which his approval is terminated, or until his death, if earlier.

(2) The requirements of paragraph (1) may be complied with either by retaining the original written record (or a copy of it) or by keeping all the information from the record in some other accessible form (such as by means of a computer).

(3) The authority or voluntary organisation responsible for the maintenance of any register or record under regulation 12 or 13 shall secure its safe keeping and take all necessary steps to ensure that the information which it contains is treated as confidential, subject only to—

(a) any statutory provision under which access to such register, record or information may be obtained or should be granted; and

(b) any court order under which access to such register, record or information may be obtained or given.

(4) Each voluntary organisation, where it is not acting as an authorised person(1), shall provide a guardian ad litem of a child with—

(a) such access as may be required to—

(i) case records and registers maintained in accordance with these Regulations, and

(ii) the information from such records or registers held in whatever form (such as by means of a computer); and

(b) such copies of the records or entries in the registers as the guardian ad litem may require.

(1)

For access by guardians ad litem to authority and authorised person’s records see Article 61 of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (S.I. 1995/755 (N.I. 2)). “Authorised person” is defined in Article 49 of that Order