Daon, the biometrics company backed by businessman Dermot Desmond, has been awarded a contract by the Alabama Department of Human Resources to conduct criminal background checks on licensed childcare and adult care providers, as well as adoptive parents, foster parents and certain employees of the department. Daon said last week it had extensive experience in this area as it had already carried out five million civilian airport-worker criminal background checks.

It said that the Alabama department's previous system often took months to process criminal record checks because a manual submission system was in place. Daon will manage the automated system, and provide training and support.