Under the Children Act 1989 (c. 41), Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools (“the Chief Inspector”) has the function of regulating the provision of day care and child minding for children under the age of eight in England. These Regulations, made under section 79N(5) of the Children Act 1989, give the Chief Inspector the additional function, in prescribed circumstances, of disclosing to parents, the police and various organisations concerned with the provision of care for, or with protecting, children certain information gathered while regulating such childcare.

Regulation 5 sets out the circumstances in which the Chief Inspector must disclose information to the parents of children who are being, or have been, provided with child care. Regulation 5(3) describes the information that is to be disclosed. Regulation 5(4) protects from disclosure without consent the identity of other children and their parents and lifts the requirement to disclose in the case of any information that the Chief Inspector considers unreliable because of its age or the source of it or because it is not adequately substantiated.

Regulation 6 sets out the circumstances in which the Chief Inspector must disclose information to childcare organisations listed in the Schedule to the Regulations (and which include early years development and childcare partnerships, fostering agencies and voluntary adoption agencies as well as local authorities carrying out certain of their functions in relation to children) and the information that is to be provided in those circumstances. There is protection from disclosure without consent of the identity of other children and their parents and the Chief Inspector is not required to disclose information that he considers unreliable because of its age or the source of it or because it is not adequately substantiated.

Regulation 7 sets out the circumstances in which the Chief Inspector must disclose information to child protection agencies (bodies or organisations within the United Kingdom that have statutory functions relating to the protection of children) and to the police and the information the Chief Inspector must disclose to them.

Regulation 8 provides for disclosure of information to other government departments and to local authorities carrying out statutory functions other than as “childcare organisations” (to which regulation 6 applies).

Regulation 4 affects the extent of the duty to disclose in each of these cases. It lifts the duty: in any case where the Chief Inspector is not satisfied that the interests of a child, or of children in general, will be served by the disclosure; where the Chief Inspector has already made the disclosure to the person or organisation to whom it would otherwise have to be disclosed; and where the information is already reasonably available to the person or organisation or where the disclosure would involve disproportionate effort or expense. The regulation also lifts the duty to disclose where the Chief Inspector judges that the information is sought for the purpose of commencing, or considering commencing, a civil action, whether against the Chief Inspector or another person or body, so that the law relating to the extent of any duty to disclose in such circumstances is undisturbed. The regulation also lifts the duty to disclose in any case where the law other than the Data Protection Act 1998 (c. 29) or an order of a court requires the Chief Inspector not to do so.