To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 25 June 2008, Official Report, columns 25-27WS, on data handling procedures, if he will commission a privacy impact assessment for the ContactPoint database. (222189)

We have no plans to commission a privacy impact assessment for the ContactPoint project which is currently in testing phase. Our preferred approach is to continue our ongoing engagement with the Information Commissioner's Office and with children, young people, parents and carers both at a national and a local level, to ensure that any concerns about privacy are addressed and that the benefits that ContactPoint will bring are fully explained.

It is important that children, young people and their families have confidence in the way ContactPoint protects their privacy. That is why the data held on ContactPoint will be minimal to enable it to fulfil its purpose - to provide a quick and easy way for practitioners to find out who else is working with the same child.

ContactPoint will contain no case information—for example, school attainment records or medical case notes—nor will it include subjective opinions, comments or observations about a child or their parents.

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the reasons are for the delay in the implementation of ContactPoint; and what the cost to the public purse of (a) that delay and (b) implementation in full will be. (223744)

The Government have always been clear that they would take a steady, staged approach to developing ContactPoint including subjecting the system to rigorous testing.

Recent testing of the system has highlighted some usability issues that we want to resolve before we embark on testing the ContactPoint system with users. In order to address these issues thoroughly, I decided not to start Early Adopter deployment in October 2008 as planned. It is both prudent and sensible to take a little more time to ensure the system is ready before we deploy it to local authorities and national partners.

We expect to meet the cost of full implementation from the existing budget, which remains unchanged at £224 million, since it was announced by my right hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston (Beverley Hughes) in December 2005.