Child Abuse Registry & Criminal Background Checks

The UK Government maintains decentralized child abuse registries for 86 of its counties.  However, the child abuse registries are only searchable by the name of an affected child, not/not by the name of an offender.  Information regarding an offender would be found on a UK police certificate, which each prospective adoptive parent would be required to apply for from the UK authorities if they had resided in the United Kingdom for longer than one year.

The information on the child abuse registries (formerly called the Child Protection Register, now called the Integrated Children’s System) can only be accessed by UK-licensed social workers.  Generally, social workers from other countries cannot access the registry due to UK Data Protection Act restrictions.  For more information, see Integrated Children’s System.

For information on obtaining criminal background checks, see our page at Record Checks.