An online system to identify children who may be in danger of abuse or neglect is being developed for use in hospitals across England.

The £9m Child Protection Information System will alert doctors and nurses in accident and emergency departments if children are known to be at risk or had urgent treatment at other hospitals.

It will be rolled out from 2015.

Ministers say abuse will be identified earlier. Labour criticised the delay in replacing a database shelved in 2010.

The government has said tragedies that followed missed warnings, such as the cases of Peter Connelly or Victoria Climbie, might be avoided if a common database was shared.

Under the new system, children arriving at a hospital accident and emergency or urgent care centre will be checked on the NHS computer system.

That will clarify whether the youngster is on the register for children considered to be at risk, or in council care.

The system is also intended to make it easier for doctors and nurses to see if patients had other emergency admissions elsewhere in the country.

Ministers say by giving professionals the wider picture, abuse can be identified earlier.

Health minister Dan Poulter said the scheme should give professionals "the best tools for the job".

"Up until now, it has been hard for frontline healthcare professionals to know if a child is already listed as being at risk or if children have been repeatedly seen in different emergency departments or urgent care centres with suspicious injuries or complaints, which may indicate abuse," he said.

"Providing instant access to that information means vulnerable and abused children will be identified much more quickly - which will save lives."

Dr Simon Eccles, a consultant in emergency medicine at Homerton Hospital in London who helped set up the scheme, said innocent parents or carers would not come under suspicion.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: "It's quite straightforward I hope, most of the time, to ascertain whether this is just a child who is beautifully looked after but tends to play rough, or this is a child who is not ever being watched when they play and tend to hurt themselves."

Dr Eccles said that if a member of the clinical team - a nurse, doctor or paediatrician - made a judgement call and believes a child could be at risk, they could each escalate it "up the ladder", which could ultimately result in a visit to the home.

"Time and again when we have seen children killed as a result of abuse or neglect, we have seen that professionals have seen it as their responsibility to alert someone else to the problem rather than taking action themselves," she said.

Yes but when I was young I had dozens of A&E visits, my parents would have been accused of child abuse when they were never anywhere near me when the accident happened.

I think it counts as child abuse if you let your child play unattended. That's why they have closed all the play grounds.

I think JJ was being subtly ironic at you.