It's been revealed the Department of Education is to stop fingerprinting children after the Chief Minister spoke to Education Minister David Anderson.

Tony Brown says when he became aware of three Manx schools using the biometric systems in their libraries, he consulted Mr Anderson.

The Education Minister then requested an immediate suspension of the systems until an urgent review and policy determination could be carried out by his department.

Stuart Peters reports (text, below, from attached audio file):

Mr Brown's written response was to a Tynwald question from Speaker of the House of Keys Steve Rodan.

Mr Rodan had wanted to know what Government policy was on the biometric scanning and data capture of Manx citizens' personal details and whether that included criteria for fingerprinting children.

Mr Brown said apart from information relating to passports, the Government didn't have a policy relating to scanning or data capture.

The Chief Minister finished by thanking Mr Rodan for bringing the matter to his attention.