THE head of a major Scottish charity has said there should be a register for aid organisations to share information about staff or volunteers who have been investigated over allegations of sexually abusing children.

Alistair Dutton, director of the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (Sciaf), was speaking to The National after the charity confirmed it had dealt with two cases involving alleged sexual misconduct with children.

The first, in 2012, involved a 45-year-old volunteer for a partner agency in Burundi, who allegedly raped a 15-year-old girl; the second, in 2016, involved a junior staff member for a joint organisation with two other charities in Ethiopia, who was accused of sexual misconduct with a boy under 16.

His comments came amid scrutiny of the UK aid sector after Oxfam was accused of concealing the findings of an inquiry into claims its staff used prostitutes while delivering aid in Haiti in 2011.

He said there was “a real issue” with how charities passed information among themselves.

“Here in the UK we have different registers of people who have criminal records, child protection registers, and once we’re working internationally those legal mechanisms don’t exist,” he said.

Dutton said that if a register existed for the sector, where organisations had to declare any cases involving staff or volunteers, it would provide an added level of security.

“As agencies, if we had a case we could register that against a name on the list,” he said. “If the person wasn’t on the register, then that would provoke a question itself. And if there was something against their name on the register that would also alert us. But at the moment we’re reliant on references and word of mouth, and obviously that’s only as good as the people who provide them.

“So, some systemic approach that allowed us to pass information responsibly with the right checks and balances could be a really welcome development in helping us be confident that we are recruiting people who live up to the standards that we set for ourselves.”

He said the detail would have to be thought through very carefully, given the amount work involved in each scenario.

There could be a register of international aid workers who were working outside their home country, which would be quite a large undertaking, but with a limited number of people.

A list of national staff employed in each agency in every country would be much bigger, and if it were extended to cover volunteers working in individual villages, it would become a huge register for any one country and a “vast undertaking” if it were to cover more than 100 countries.

Dutton said: “It needs to be a manageable thing, because otherwise we can devote lots of time to it, but if it doesn’t actually work quite quickly it will fall into disuse … the register will only be of value if we can trust the information that’s on it.

“We in Sciaf take safeguarding really seriously. I lead it from the top and we have a very strong child safeguarding committee.

“I would be delighted if one of that committee could be closely involved in exploring these ideas and seeing whether we could develop a mechanism that would be a significant development for the sector.”

Dutton said both of the incidents he had revealed were dealt with “decisively”. The people involved were removed, he said, cooperation was offered to the police, all the necessary authorities were notified and Sciaf looked after the alleged victims.

He defended not disclosing the cases earlier. “I think it would be wrong to be publicising these,” he said. “It would jeopardise the safety of both parties in the case and it would not reassure people – it would concern and alarm people.”

The revelations of recent days have led Westminster’s International Development Committee to convene an urgent session on Tuesday to question the senior management of Oxfam, Save the Children and the Department for International Development.