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"Absurd" secrecy rules applying to children in care homes may have helped paedophiles target them, Education Secretary Michael Gove has said.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Gove described a "wall of silence" when he tried to get information about homes.
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The regulator Ofsted was not allowed to pass information to the police because of data protection rules and what Mr Gove called other "bewildering regulations".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24075588
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"In the name of 'protecting children' by officially 'protecting' their information, we had ended up helping the very people we were supposed to be protecting them from.
"We shielded the children from the authorities who needed to be looking out for them. An 'out of sight, out of mind' culture developed."
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I recall thinking that the Data Protection Act would have unintended consequences and this seems to be one such. The police cited data protection law for serious failures relating to information regarding Ian Huntley years ago and now there's this which is very probably just another example of how well intentioned laws can have massive implications which weren't thought through at the time.