Two thirds of local authority children’s services departments have refused to share information with the CrownProsecution Service and police in the past three years, according to responses to an FOI request from Emily Thornberry MP, Labour’s Shadow Attorney General.

Of 51 councils who provided full responses to the FOI request, 33 revealed that they had declined requests from the police and Crown Prosecution Service to disclose documents that they considered would be helpful criminal investigations. Many blocked requests on a regular basis.

For example, the Children’s Services department at Cheshire East borough council turned down 19 out of 44 requests over the three-year period while Kirklees only disclosed on 12 of the 27 occasions it was asked. Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire county councils have both turned down over a quarter of requests made to them, while Bristol City Council turned down half of the 102 requests it received since 2011 when it started keeping records.

Some authorities have agreed an information-sharing protocol with the CPS, an approach which CPS strongly encourages. However, there is no obligation on councils to have a protocol in place and many still require the police and CPS to obtain a court order first, even though the Data Protection Act explicitly states that this is not necessary.

Emily Thornberry said:

“For all of David Cameron’s frequent pledges about cracking down on child abuse, his Government has done nothing to resolve what prosecutors have told me is the biggest problem they face in bringing child abuse prosecutions: the difficulty of accessing potential evidence held by local authorities.

“To be fair to councils, they insist that they always act in the best interest of the child. However, when you have two sides – prosecutors and councils – who intractably disagree on something as important as this, it is for ministers to step in and show some leadership. Their failure to do so is quite extraordinary given that one of the major lessons of the child-grooming scandals in Rotherham and elsewhere is that information-sharing between agencies is essential and must urgently improve.

“As things stand, the extent to which a child is protected by the criminal law depends on their postcode.”

ENDS

Editor’s Notes:

1. For full details of the FOI request and responses please email: graham_moonie@labour.org.uk

2.    This is the agreement on information sharing produced by the CPS that prosecutors would like to see in place in all local authorities: http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/docs/third_party_protocol_2013.pdf

3.    For the most recent report on child safeguarding that stresses the importance of information-sharing between agencies, see: Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups; Final Report, Office of the Children’s Commissioner, November 2013: http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/publications/content_74