EAST Lothian Council has been challenged to reveal whether it has microchipped children in its care - and whether their parents had been told!

The bizarre questions were raised under a Freedom of Information request to the local authority, by an unidentified source.

The request began by erroneously stating: “It has come to our attention that within the next decade all children in the UK will be microchipped.” It then went on to ask the council how many children in their care had already been microchipped, where on the body the chips were inserted, how many had suffered side effects and whether their biological parents had been informed.

The council responded that no children in its care had been chipped and, as a result, none of the other questions applied.

The FOI came a month after a fake story appeared on the internet claiming that all EU countries would have to microchip newborn babies from May this year.

It is not the first time urban myths about making microchipping children compulsory have appeared online.

Over the last decade the issue has surfaced several times and there have even been e-petitions to the Government demanding they microchip children.

However, there is no suggestion the request has ever been taken seriously by the Government or local authorities.