Regulation 7 Disclosure to child protection agencies and police forces
In this regulation, “child protection agency” includes any body or authority exercising within the United Kingdom statutory functions relating to the protection of children.
The Chief Inspector shall, if he considers it appropriate having regard to the welfare of any child or children, disclose to such child protection agencies and police forces as he considers appropriate any information of a kind falling within paragraph (3).
The information referred to in paragraph (2) shall be—
information obtained in the course of ascertaining the suitability of a person to be a childcare provider or, as the case may be, an associate of a childcare provider;
information obtained by an authorised person;
information connected with any enforcement action taken against a childcare provider by the Chief Inspector, by an authorised person, or by a local authority acting under Part X of the Act.
Without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (2), the Chief Inspector shall, in response to a written request from a child protection agency or a police force for information relating to a person named in the request—
if that person is, or has been, a childcare provider or an associate of a childcare provider, or
if that person’s suitability to be a childcare provider or an associate of a childcare provider has been considered by him,
provide that agency or, as the case may be, that police force with such information of a kind falling within paragraph (5) in his possession as he considers appropriate to meet that request.
The information referred to in paragraph (4) shall be—
information concerning the setting for the childcare provided by that person;
if the person has at any time been a registered childcare provider, the date of, purpose of, and any conditions attaching to the registration;
information obtained in the course of considering the suitability of the person to be a childcare provider or, as the case may be, the associate;
other information about the person or, in the case of a person who has acted as a childcare provider, the setting in which the childcare was provided obtained by an authorised person;
information concerning any child receiving childcare from that person or in that setting;
information as to any enforcement action taken against the person by the Chief Inspector, by an authorised person or by a local authority acting under Part X of the Act.
For the purposes of paragraph (2), disclosure by the Chief Inspector or by an authorised person to any person having authority or ostensible authority to receive on behalf of a child protection agency or, as the case may be, a police force the information so disclosed shall be treated as disclosure by the Chief Inspector to the agency or police force in question.