The Liberal Democrats have claimed that the agency set up to protect children and vulnerable adults from sex offenders is putting their lives at risk by failing to process checks quickly enough.

The £400 million Criminal Records Bureau has a backlog of 35,667 queries after "drowning in paper" since going live in March last year.

Forum Response: Barnardo's

Dr Chris Hanvey, Barnardo's UK director of operations, told ePolitix.com: "Delays need to be rectified, but there must be no relaxation of the criteria in order to deal with the backlog, or there will be a danger that child abusers will slip through the net. We know that those wishing to abuse children will go to any lengths to gain access and they will not be slow to exploit any loopholes which they find.

"The concentration on teacher checking last autumn created even more delay for organisations like Barnardo's - not just for checks on social welfare workers, but on volunteers and potential foster and adoptive parents.

"The CRB may be issuing more disclosures now compared to last year, but it is still the absolute figures that count and too many cases are taking a long time to resolve."