Written question asked by Lord Austin of Dudley (Labour) on Thursday, 8 July 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 12 July 2010. It was answered by Tim Loughton (Conservative) on Monday, 4 October 2010 on behalf of the Department for Education.

Children: Databases

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what estimate he has made of the savings to be accrued in (a) the West Midlands and (b) Dudley borough as a result of ending the ContactPoint database in each of the next five financial years.

Answer: On 22 July I made a written ministerial statement informing Parliament that ContactPoint would be shut down on 6 August. The Department also wrote to local authorities on the same day informing them that grant funding would continue until the end of August to cover the costs of decommissioning ContactPoint.As from 1 September the Department will save the cost of grant payments to the West Midlands and Dudley borough for the remainder of 2010-11 and in the years thereafter. The response I gave to the hon. Member on 19 July 2010, Official Report, column 97W, gives details of these grant payments. The Department does not have details of any further savings that might accrue locally to the West Midlands and Dudley borough as a result of closing ContactPoint.Closing down ContactPoint is not about saving money, it is about finding the most proportionate and effective way to help frontline practitioners to protect vulnerable children. We have never believed that such a large database, accessible to hundreds of thousands of people, is the most appropriate way to help vulnerable children.

Secondary information