An investigation is to be launched into whether the London Child Protection Committee's guidance on professionals working with
sexually active children infringes privacy laws.

The charity Action on Rights for Children has lodged a complaint with the information commissioner, claiming that the interim guidelines, which require professionals to assess the sexual relationships of under-18s in their care, breach the Data Protection Act 1998.

The move came in the same week that Sir Michael Bichard, who chaired the inquiry into the Soham murders, criticised the guidelines, saying they were not in line with his recommendations that social workers report cases of adults having sexual relationships with under-18s to the police.

Terri Dowty, policy director at the charity, said that many professionals were "horrified" at the protocol, which would exacerbate the problem of potential criminality in under-age sex between consenting minors close in age.

She said: "It is a terrible invasion of young people's privacy." There was a real risk that "soft intelligence" accumulated by the police could affect a child's future dealings with the police as well as their ability to work with children, she added.