PARENTS now have the chance to check whether people in contact with their children pose a risk, with the roll-out of “Sarah’s Law” across Merseyside.

The Child Sex Offender Disclosure scheme means that anyone can ask the police to check whether an individual who has access to children has committed any child sexual offences.

The legislation to allow controlled access to the Sex Offenders’ Register came into force more than 10 years after the murder of West Sussex school girl Sarah Payne by known paedophile Roy Whiting.

Sarah’s mother, Sara, has always said knowing such information could have saved her daughter’s life, and campaigned for people to know if a convicted sex offender lived in their area.

Now, after several forces, including Cheshire, trialled the scheme last year, it has been rolled out to all 42 forces across England and Wales. In the first week on Merseyside, police had just one query, mirroring the low uptake nationally.

During the initial pilot in the year up to September, 2009, there were nearly 600 inquiries to the four forces involved, leading to 315 applications for information and 21 disclosures about registered child sex offenders.

The Home Office said more than 60 children had been protected from abuse in the pilot.