Scout groups in Borehamwood could face serious cut-backs when a new law forces them to pay £10 to the Government to check every new volunteer.

The new law will see the Government set up a Criminal Records Bureaux to store records about anyone with a history of child abuse or criminal record. Voluntary groups like the Scouts would have to pay £10 per person to check new volunteers.

'It will cause problems for everybody who works with children, not just the Scouts,' said Roger Sands, the commissioner of Hertfordshire Scouts.

He said the new system would cost the Scouts about £250,000 every year nationally, while their current vetting system costs about £75,000 per year, or 50 pence per person.

'The Government is having the temerity to say it's a voluntary system, and we don't have to use it.

You can imagine the reaction we would get in the press if we didn't.

'Our problem is not with the system itself ,, we support the idea of having a central database with a list of offenders ,, but the cost is too high.

Mr Sands said that while some groups in Hertfordshire could cope with the new charge by asking any new volunteer to pay it, in parts of Hertsmere it would reduce the number of people volunteering to become Scout leaders at a time when their numbers are already low.

'Public money would be well spent in allowing voluntary organisations to use the new system for free; after all the Government is always advising children to take up outdoor activities and sport, something the Scouts have been doing for a hundred years,' he said.

In Borehamwood, Scout groups are already under pressure to balance their finances and any extra strain could spell disaster for local children.

'We haven't got enough money to survive as it is,' said Carol Denbigh of Borehamwood's 7th Scout Group.

'It is a lot of money. Last year we had ten volunteers wanting to join, if we had to use this system that would have cost us £100, and we just haven't got it,' she said.