Written question asked by Tim Loughton (Conservative) on Thursday, 10 March 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 16 March 2005. It was answered by Baroness Hodge of Barking (Labour) on Wednesday, 16 March 2005 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Dept for Education and Skills

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, what her latest estimate is of the cost of (a) establishing and (b) maintaining the databases of children established by the Children Act 2004.

Answer: Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what her latest estimate is of the cost of (a) establishing and (b) maintaining the databases of children established by the Children Act 2004. [222033] Margaret Hodge: The detailed costings for a national system of databases or Indexes' are not yet available. We know that the 15 authorities involved in our 10 Trailblazers have been able to make good progress towards introducing both indexes and the vital training and culture change required, within overall budgets of around £1 million per Trailblazer. We will take decisions on the funding of a national infrastructure in the light of further work on the technical feasibility and an analysis of costs and benefits. We will not move to this phase until we are clear that the processes and systems are deliverable, and that we have secured sufficient funding.

Secondary information