Parents hoping to accompany their children to school Christmas events are having their criminal records checked in case they are paedophiles, it was claimed.
The Government insisted it was not policy to vet parents attending carol concerts or nativity plays amid reports schools were using the database of people banned from working with children for sex offences and for other reasons.
It comes amid anxiety at proposed new guidance from the Government, stating that from next year people working with children frequently will have to be vetted and registered.
Graham McArthur, headmaster of Somersham primary school in Cambridgeshire, told the Sunday Times that checks were being carried out on more than 20 parents volunteering to walk his 330 pupils to a carol service at nearby St John's church on December 17.
A Department for Children, Schools and Families spokeswoman said: "There is currently no legal requirement for parents to be checked in this way. We want to take a common sense approach to this and allow headteachers to use their professional judgment and experience in deciding whether a CRB disclosure is necessary.
"Our guidance recommends that schools obtain a CRB check for parents only when they volunteer at the school on a regular basis. This is defined as three or more times in a 30 day period.
"It is not now, nor will it ever be, Government policy to vet parents attending carol concerts or nativity plays with their children."
Other primaries have instituted vetting for parents attending Christmas discos on school premises, the paper also reports.
