New setback for paedophile screening

The computer system will help protect children

The start of a government-funded service aimed at preventing paedophiles from working with children has been held up for a second time.

The Liverpool-based Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) should have begun work in the summer but was hit by computer problems.

Now the £400m service will not open until spring at the soonest, the Home Office has announced.

The system is designed to offer employers and voluntary bodies a simpler way of checking if a job applicant has been convicted of a crime, such as child sex abuse.

Criminal record

They will be able to check employment and police records for any report of abuse or suspicion of abuse.

But the project has been dogged with problems.

Earlier this year it emerged that more than 60% of police records on which the CRB will depend were inaccurate.

The launch in July was postponed because setting up a new IT system for the bureau proved more complex than anticipated.

Now the Home Office has announced that there will be another six month delay.

A spokesman said that lessons had been learned from previous computer failures and it was important that the service from CRB was robust.

Computer problems previously caused havoc in the UK Passport Agency and the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.

At the Passport Agency new computer systems generated a backlog of up to 540,000 applications for travel documents two years ago.

Once up and running, the CRB will be accountable both to Parliament and the home secretary.