A new computer system forecast to revoluntionise children's services has been slammed by civil liberties campaigners.

Council social services staff will be among the 330,000 people able to access the new £224m computer system, containing the personal details of England's 11m under-18 year-olds.

It is expected that councils will use the system to search for evidence of criminality to help them launch prosecutions against those on the database.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families say it will help ‘improve services to children' but civil liberties campaigners are sceptical, saying the database will not protect children but be used to prosecute them.

The news comes in the wake of the death of Victoria Climbié, who was abused and then murdered after a string of missed opportunities to intervene by the authorities.

Baroness Miller, the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman in the House of Lords, said the system ‘raises a lot of issues' and expressed concern that there has not been a Parliamentary debate on it's implementation.

The system, called by ContactPoint, will include the names, ages and addresses of all under-18 year-olds in England, as well as information on their parents, GPs, schools and support services.

It will be put into use by 17 councils in the North West in October and then rolled out across the country.