A Government department working to prevent a repeat of the Soham murders is to have its headquarters in the North-East, The Northern Echo can reveal.

The Home Office will base its Vetting and Barring Scheme, set up to protect children and vulnerable adults, at offices in Darlington, leading to the creation of about 270 jobs.

The organisation will vet up to ten million employees and volunteers across the UK, including teachers, carers, hospital staff and prison officers.

It is being set up following the Bichard Inquiry, an independent report that followed the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman by school caretaker Ian Huntley.

The report recommended that a system of registering people who work with or alongside children or vulnerable adults should be introduced to address "overlap, duplication and inconsistency" in existing systems.

Last night, David Hines, chairman of the North of England Victims Association, welcomed the news.

He said: "Huntley slipped through the net, but if this scheme will prevent people like him working with children, then it is great news.

"Anything that is going to protect vulnerable people and children is welcomed."

The Home Office will base the scheme at Morton Palms Business Park, in Darlington.

About 300 people will work at the site once the new vetting system comes into force in August next year. At least 30 staff will transfer from the Department for Education and Skills, at Mowden Hall, also in Darlington, and a further 270 jobs will be created.

Darlington Borough Council leader John Williams said: "This is excellent news. The work that has been carried out by the council and its partners - to help create jobs by making Darlington an ideal location for organisations looking to relocate- is bringing real benefits, both to the town and to the North-East."

The Vetting and Barring Scheme will build on the existing lists of those barred from working with children and vulnerable adults, including List 99, the Protection of Vulnerable Adults (POVA), and The Protection of Children Act List (POCAL).

The new database will be constantly updated and employers will be able to access the information online.

The new organisation will have its own Independent Barring Board, a statutory body, independent of Ministers, that will make all discretionary decisions to bar individuals from working with children and/or vulnerable adults.

The board will be chaired by Sir Roger Singleton, the former chief executive of Barnardos, and will make individual decisions based on information from a number of sources, including the Criminal Records Bureau, former employers and professional bodies, such as the General Medical Council and social services.

Any ban implemented by the board will last for a minimum of ten years, during which time it will be a criminal offence for that person to apply for a job working with children or vulnerable adults. It will also be a criminal offence for an employer to recruit such a person.

Convicted paedophiles, or those involved in violent crimes, will be barred from working with children or vulnerable adults for life.

The system has been welcomed by Britain's biggest teachers' organisation, the National Union of Teachers. A spokesman said: "A system that replaces the Secretary of State making the decision as to whether to bar somebody with an independent body, with representatives from the education sector, is certainly welcomed by us."

Home Office spokesman Simon Morrison said all people working with children or vulnerable adults - including people who work in care homes, for the NHS and in prisons - will have to register with the scheme by law.

He said: "This system has been explicitly created to help stop another Soham-type murder occurring again. While that can never be guaranteed, this new, much tighter system makes such a tragedy less likely to happen."