Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse: Final Report

Lord Bishop of Exeter Excerpts

Monday 24th October 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Judge (CB)]

My Lords, the problem is that this is happening today, tonight and tomorrow morning. The Government must decide which of the 107 recommendations should have priority. There can be a debate about this, but one that needs urgent attention is legislation to deal with mandatory reporting. The first question is: on whom should such a duty be imposed? Obviously, it should be institutions responsible for the care of children, as well as individuals in positions of trust. But we also have to be careful that, in our haste, we do not impose a duty on victims to report other victims. They may find it impossible to report their own stories, so why should they be in a position where they have to report someone else’s? In some institutions, it must be perfectly obvious to victims that there are other victims of the same person.

We need to be careful about legislation. It is not an offence of obstructing the police for me not to answer a question; it is an offence to lie. If we are going to amend that law, we need to be clear about how we will do so. Section 44 of the Serious Crime Act 2007 is almost impossible to understand. I beg whoever is responsible for legislation not to simply say, “Well, we’ve got a good Act about that.” It is not a good Act; it is very difficult to follow, and it is confused in any event because it did not follow the Law Commission’s recommendations. So can we legislate urgently to deal with these issues but also be careful about how we do so?

[The Lord Bishop of Exeter]

My Lords, I am sure that those of us who sit on this Bench, along with—

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

Sorry, I thought it was me.

I thank the noble and learned Lord, Lord Judge, for that eloquent explanation of what I have just tried to explain, perhaps less eloquently, to the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby. The previous consultation on this, which reported in 2018, also illustrates a little of what the noble and Lord described. Some 51% of respondents felt that introducing a duty to act would have negative consequences, 68% felt that mandatory reporting would have an adverse impact and 85% felt that it would not ensure that appropriate action was taken. This included people like the Children’s Commissioner and the NSPCC, who know what they are talking about. Some of the reasons given in the report—these go very much to what the noble and learned Lord said—were that it could

“dissuade victims from disclosing incidents of abuse and reduce ‘safe spaces’ for children.”

It could also have

“an adverse impact on the child protection system … e.g., by impacting the recruitment and retention of staff”.

Also,

“Increased reporting may divert attention from the most serious … cases”.


So many other reasons were given, illustrating the complexity of this subject and the care with which it needs to be looked at. So I agree entirely with the noble and learned Lord.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Lord Bishop of Exeter]

My Lords, those of us who sit on this Bench, along with all on other Benches in your Lordships’ House, are deeply saddened and ashamed by the harm and suffering experienced by victims and survivors of abuse. I salute the courage of survivors in coming forward to share their stories. We are determined to learn from the mistakes of the past and make the Church as safe a place as possible. That is why we welcome this final report and are already embracing its various recommendations with, for example, the Church of England’s redress board, which has a victims and survivors working group. In this respect, what exactly is the Government’s intention? Is it their preference to support institutions, including the Church, in establishing individual redress schemes? Or is it their intention to create a new overarching external regulatory body in this respect?

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

The right reverend Prelate obviously makes some good points. I will outline what the Government are doing to ensure that all sectors and leaders of society are working together to tackle child sexual abuse. In his opening speech in the other place, the Home Secretary comprehensively outlined the cross-party and multiagency dimension to all of this. We are transforming the way that local safeguarding agencies work together to ensure a more effective response in safeguarding children.

The Children and Social Work Act 2017 introduced significant reforms, requiring local authorities, clinical commissioning groups and chief officers of police to form multiagency safeguarding partnerships. All of the new partnerships were in place by September 2019, but we know that there are still improvements to be made to the quality and consistency of the local partnerships. We are working with local partners to understand and address those challenges in ensuring effective independent scrutiny, engaging with schools and other relevant agencies and distributing funding.

I reiterate that the Government are firmly committed to supporting all institutions that play a role in safeguarding children to develop robust safeguarding strategies that are carefully monitored, ensuring the safety and protection of children, regardless of where they live and spend their time.