By Steve Bargeton, political editor

First Minister Jack McConnell gave a reassurance yesterday that tougher checks in Scotland meant it was less likely that Soham murderer Ian Huntley could have been employed in a school north of the border.

New legislation introduced in the wake of the Dunblane tragedy means that anybody working with children and vulnerable groups—from teachers to Scout leaders—has to undergo thorough scrutiny.

But the vetting agency set up to carry out these checks is facing a backlog of 24,000 unchecked cases. Disclosure Scotland has a target time of 14 days to carry out all the necessary checks but extra staff have had to be recruited to meet a mounting backlog.

Checks which should be completed in 14 days are now taking 24 days—almost twice as long—to carry out and 21 extra staff have been taken on to tackle a backlog of 23,906 inquiries.

At First Minister’s Questions yesterday Mr McConnell told MSPs he had spoken to Home Secretary David Blunkett that morning to discuss the vetting issues arising from the Soham case.

He said that, unlike in England, Scottish police record suspicions and information short of actual convictions and share that information between forces.

He told the Home Secretary that Scotland will now work to make the information available to English authorities, too.

“I’m sure every member in the chamber will today be sympathising with the families who have had to suffer such a difficult ordeal,” Mr McConnell told MSPs.

“I spoke to the Home Secretary this morning and he will be very willing to look at this whole issue in a UK perspective to ensure that, not only is information being properly exchanged in England and Wales but between England and Wales and Scotland.

“We have some new procedures in place or about to be put in place as a result of the Protection of Children (Scotland) Act which came out of the tragedy in Dunblane.”

Mr McConnell said that justice minister Cathy Jamieson is planning meetings with chief constables to discuss issues raised by the Soham case and children’s minister Peter Peacock has asked his officials for a full briefing.

“I would want to reassure the chamber that the systems that operate in Scotland are different to those which operate in England,” said Mr McConnell.

“In Scotland, if police have suspicions on an individual, they will pass that to intelligence who will hold on to that information and it’s only taken off the system if it is no longer relevant.

“Information will stay on the system indefinitely and the Scottish police forces will share that information nationally.

“One of the things we have to ensure is that information available in Scotland is also available in England and any information they have is also available to ourselves.”