Bichard slams police over Soham murders

The home secretary has announced sweeping changes to the way the police perform child protection procedures and ordered the suspension of a senior officer in the Humberside force.

Publishing the Bichard report into lapses which led to the Soham murders, David Blunkett told MPs that lessons would be learned.

He also called for the immediate suspension of David Westwood, the chief constable of the Humberside constabulary - who later put himself on a collision course by insisting that he would tough it out.

In his report Sir Michael Bichard identified "errors, omissions, failures and shortcomings which are deeply shocking".

Central to the government's response is the creation of the first National Police Intelligence Computer system - which will be known as "IMPACT".

The system will ensure that "all forces use the same system to manage and share intelligence information".

In his damning report Sir Michael calls for the creation of a registration scheme for those wishing to work with children or vulnerable adults.

The register would confirm that there is no known reason why someone should not work with children or vulnerable adults.

"Having said that I have discovered errors, omissions, failures and shortcomings which are deeply shocking and which meant that, for example, there was not one single occasion in all of the contacts with Huntley - including sexual offences allegations notified to Humberside Police - when the record systems worked properly," he added.

"That means that I cannot be confident that it was Huntley alone who 'slipped through the net'."

He called for more rigorous cross-checks and for increased investment in IT systems such as the Police National Computer.

The investigation, which will be reconvened in six months to assess whether progress is being made, proposed introduction of a national intelligence system

And in a report which will lead to resignation demands, Sir Michael rejected Humberside Police's claim that the Data Protection Act prevented records from being kept.

"I want to make it quite clear that, in my view, the legislation was not to blame and though it may be inelegant it does not require redrafting because of this case," he said.

"The records were not available because of the failures in Humberside Police - a fact now accepted by the chief constable."

The report proposes that the social services database should hold details of all alleged sexual offenders involved with named children and should be easily searchable.