Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that children's centres receive live birth data from local authorities.

The Department for Education’s Sure Start children’s centres statutory guidance says that health services and local authorities should share information (such as live birth data and data on families with children under five who have recently moved into the area) with children’s centres on a regular basis.

Local authorities and commissioners of health services should consider developing local partnership agreements or protocols to enable effective sharing of live birth data, whilst ensuring compliance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998 and other relevant legal provisions.

Birth registration data are in the public domain, and therefore explicit consent is not required for the sharing of live birth data between health and local authorities and between local authorities and Sure Start children’s centres.

The Department does not hold data relating to local authority practice with regards to live birth data.