A pioneering scheme to improve protection for children will now be introduced in Gloucestershire in the Autumn, rather than the summer as originally planned.

The Child Sex Offender Disclosure scheme has been subject to a 12 month pilot scheme in four police force areas, and in March the then Home Secretary Alan Johnson announced that it would be rolled out to certain others, including Gloucestershire.

Due to be launched in Gloucestershire on August 1, the introduction has now been postponed until October 1.

Detective Chief Inspector Neil Kelly, of the Gloucestershire Public Protection Bureau, said: “The recent change of Government has meant that new Ministers have had to be consulted on this Scheme.

“This consultation process has led to some delay in certain elements of the Scheme and training materials have only been released during the past week, making full implementation on August 1 extremely challenging.

“In common with other forces in the South West region Gloucestershire has therefore decided to delay implementation until October 1. This will allow sufficient time to ensure that we are fully prepared to properly adopt this important scheme.”

The scheme gives members of the public a formal mechanism to make enquires about people who are in contact with children.

Under the terms of the scheme a parent, carer or guardian or another interested party, can request that an individual who has access to their child or children is checked to see whether they have a record of committing child sexual offences. If this individual is found to have convictions for sexual offences against children, and poses a risk of causing serious harm to the child or children concerned, then this information may be disclosed to the person best placed to protect the child – usually the parent, carer or guardian.