EDUCATION bosses at county hall are under fire from the government for having their own blacklist of teachers who are banned from working in schools.

Moves to stop local authorities from having their own unofficial lists of teachers, some of whom are suspected of child abuse, have been made by schools minister Estelle Morris.

She says she will be writing to councils all over the country to ask them to hand over their lists after a survey found 39 councils held registers of staff banned from working in schools, independent of a central government list.

The survey, for a BBC television programme, found the names of more than 1,000 teachers were held on unofficial blacklists but did not appear on the national register of banned teaching staff, known as "List 99".

Mrs Morris said her move had been prompted by fears that suspected abusers may slip through the system because unofficial blacklists are not shared between employers. A county council education spokesman said: "We do have a supplementary list to the government's and we will be reviewing our arrangements in the light of any new guidance from the government.

Simon Jones, the Lancashire secretary of the National Union of Teachers said "List 99" was crucial for the protection of children and branded individual education authority lists "inadequate".

He added: "Any list of teachers who are rightly and properly banned from teaching should be available to every employer and teaching supply agency for the protection of children and young people.

"And I also welcome assurances given by Estelle Morris about the need to protect teachers from false and malicious allegations."

A spokesman for Blackburn with Darwen Council's education department said the authority had no secret lists and fully supported the government's "List 99".

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