The Children Act 2004 Information Database (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2010

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations are made under section 12 of the Children Act 2004 (“the Act”) and amend the Children Act 2004 Information Database (England) Regulations 2007 (“the ContactPoint Regulations”), which make provision in relation to the establishment and operation of the database known as “ContactPoint”. These Regulations come into force on the day after the day on which they are made.

Regulation 4 amends regulation 4 of the ContactPoint Regulations to allow the database to hold information on all children “in the area of a local authority” in England, rather than only those who are “ordinarily resident in England”.

Regulation 5 amends regulation 6 of the ContactPoint Regulations so that the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (in addition to local authorities) can determine that those given access to the database can only see specific limited information (“shielding”) on a particular record. Regulation 5 also amends regulation 6 of the ContactPoint Regulations so that the details of the child’s or participating young person’s parents or carers are not visible on a “shielded” record.

Regulation 6 amends regulation 8 of the ContactPoint Regulations to provide for records of children who are no longer in the area of a local authority in England to be archived after a certain date. This amendment follows on from the amendment in regulation 4 allowing the database to hold information on children who are not ordinarily resident in England, but are in the area of a local authority.

Regulation 7 amends Schedule 1 of the ContactPoint Regulations to allow the database to hold information on all parents of a child, and not only those with parental responsibility or care of the child. Regulation 7 (and regulation 3) also replace references to “specialist and targeted services” in the ContactPoint Regulations with the term “additional services” as this is more commonly used.

Regulation 8 substitutes “Action for Children” for “NCH” following the charity changing its name.

Regulation 9 removes the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (“CEOP”) from the list of bodies in Schedule 3 as this is no longer considered necessary, given that they are already listed in Schedule 2 as a national partner and can therefore grant access to the database, where appropriate, to their employees under regulation 9 of the ContactPoint Regulations.

An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as the impact on the private or voluntary sectors foreseen from these amendments is negligible.