Almost six million children at 17,000 schools could have their fingerprints taken, intensifying fears of the growth of a “surveillance society” where personal information is gathered from cradle to grave.

As soaring numbers of schools require pupils to have biometric checks to register in the morning, buy canteen food or borrow a book, it emerged that less than one-quarter of local education authorities have banned collecting fingerprints.

The rest either allow it or have no policy on the issue, potentially enabling headteachers to gather biometric data from about 5.9 million English schoolchildren as young as four without telling their parents.

The loophole provoked a civil liberties row last night, with the Government facing demands to introduce a code of practice to prevent such information being collected without permission.

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