CHILDREN’S charity the NSPCC is warning that young people may be at risk of harm from sexual predators with few police forces making full use of ‘Sarah’s Law’.

The Child Sex Offenders Disclosure (CSOD) scheme, known as Sarah’s Law, came into force following public outrage over the savage murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne in 2000, by a convicted paedophile.

The scheme allows parents and other members of the public to apply to police for details about individuals if they suspect they might harm children.

But since it began in April 2011 just one in six applications for this type of information in England and Wales has been successful.

In Dyfed-Powys the police force gave information about people who pose a risk to children in just 31% of applications - 29 out of 94 applications.

NSPCC Freedom of Information requests to police forces in England and Wales found that from 2011-2014, just 16 per cent of applications under the scheme were successful – with vast variations in the numbers of police disclosures made across England and Wales.

Between 2011-2014, 5,357 applications were made to 33 forces but only 877 applications resulted in disclosures being made.

Five other forces said they had received 908 applications but did not provide information about disclosure numbers.

The new figures reveal wide variation in the proportion of disclosures made by different police, indicating a post code lottery when it comes to responding to public concerns.

As well as parents, carers and guardians, any concerned member of the public can formally ask the police to tell them if someone has a record for child sexual offences.

Des Mannion, NSPCC national head of service for Wales, said: “We are both disturbed and surprised by this wide discrepancy of figures across the country, revealing that there is a postcode lottery when it comes to how forces deal with Sarah’s law.

“Families need to know if there are individuals in their area who pose a risk to children. How can you expect parents to make the right choices in order to protect their children if they don’t know who is a threat?

“The police need to be proactive in empowering communities to protect vulnerable children. The wide variation in disclosure numbers doesn’t breed confidence that the scheme is being understood or applied consistently and that is a concern. While there may be very good reasons for not disclosing information held to applicants, some forces seem to be too cautious which could put children at serious risk of harm. We need to see regular independent evaluation of this vital law to make sure it’s working as it should.”