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May moves to make failure to report abuse a criminal offence: Home Secretary agrees to sweeping Hillsborough-style inquiry into allegations of paedophilia

Failure to report suspected child sex abuse could become a criminal offence, Theresa May revealed yesterday.

The Home Secretary’s announcement came as, bowing to growing pressure, she agreed to a sweeping inquiry into allegations of paedophilia in Establishment circles.

The Hillsborough-style investigation will look into the activities of churches, hospitals, schools, political parties and the BBC.

Mrs May also announced that a separate inquiry, led by NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless, will review an investigation conducted last year into the Home Office’s handling of historical child abuse allegations.

It has been prompted by claims of a cover-up after it emerged that 114 files had been lost by Home Office officials.

The Home Secretary suggested that the main inquiry could examine the work of party whips who are said to hold ‘little black books’ containing damaging information against colleagues they want to control. An expert panel will be able to call witnesses from the private sector as well as the Civil Service – and pore over secret files kept on prominent figures by the security services and whips.

More than 150 MPs had backed calls for a wide-ranging inquiry following appalling allegations against Cyril Smith and the unmasking of Jimmy Savile as a prolific sex offender.

Campaigning Labour MP Simon Danczuk said: ‘I’m in no doubt that there are Parliamentarians, just a handful, who will be worried about where these inquiries are going – no doubt about that.’

Announcing a probe to be headed by a senior figure yet to be appointed – probably a retired judge – Mrs May said: ‘Where there has been a failure to protect children from abuse, we will expose it and we will learn from it.’

Mrs May told former Tory Cabinet minister Cheryl Gillan the inquiry will examine the case for introducing a ‘mandatory reporting’ law in the UK. It would apply in schools, hospitals, churches, or sports clubs operated by a national body.

Similar laws exist in Northern Ireland, Australia, the US and Denmark. They impose a legal duty on professionals such as teachers, social workers, police and doctors to report suspicions of abuse or face legal action.

Mrs May’s announcement follows months of resistance from ministers and stops just short of the full judicial inquiry, with sessions held in public, that some campaigners demanded.

Like the investigation into the Hillsborough football disaster, it will be a non-statutory inquiry but it will have the power to call witnesses.

The Home Secretary said it would be converted into a full public inquiry if its chairman felt at any point it was necessary, and will not report before the next general election.

She told MPs the inquiry would be able to access all government and local authority paperwork it wants to – and suggested its head would be cleared to review security service files which might contain incriminating evidence against powerful individuals.

Labour MP Lisa Nandy raised remarks by the late Tory MP Tim Fortescue, a whip in Edward Heath’s Government between 1970 and 1973.

He said in a 1995 documentary that MPs in trouble would ask for help, adding: ‘It might be debt, it might be… a scandal involving small boys… If we could get a chap out of trouble then, he will do as we ask forever more.’

The review led by Mr Wanless centres on concerns the Home Office failed to act on allegations of child sex abuse contained in a dossier handed over in the 1980s by former Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens. Then Home Secretary Leon – now Lord – Brittan says he passed them to the Home Office but last week said they had been mislaid.

David Cameron said: ‘We are going to leave no stone unturned to find out the truth. Three things need to happen: robust inquiries that get to truth; police investigations that pursue the guilty and find out what has happened; and proper lessons learned so we make sure these things cannot happen again.’

Mr Danczuk said: ‘I am pleased the Government has shifted its position significantly in the last few days.

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• I hope that the inquiry will have powers to hold the intelligence services and special branch to account where investigations into powerful child abusers have been discontinued or blocked. I also hope it will give an amnesty for retired and serving officers to give evidence on what they know about Establishment paedophiles without fear of losing their pension or other repercussions.’

Former Labour minister Tom Watson backed the proposed change in the law, saying: ‘Mandatory reporting is a policy that has to be taken seriously now. This is particularly critical when children are under the care of those institutional settings like schools, nurseries and children’s homes.’

Conservative MP Dr Phillip Lee said sex abuse victims who might give evidence tneeded to be protected from blackmail.

• I gather that there are general concerns around the potential use of photographs and films from the 1970s and ’80s which have now been digitised in order to discourage victims from coming forward,’ he said.

The inquiry into historical child sex abuse is expected to last at least two years and cost millions of pounds.

The Hillsborough-style panel of independent experts will initially be tasked with trawling over mountains of evidence of how children were not properly protected from sexual predators.

Its powers will be similar to those granted to the two-year Hillsborough Inquiry.

That panel, headed by the Bishop of Liverpool the Rt Rev James Jones, analysed more than 400,000 documents before producing in 2012 a stinging report on police attempts to cover up their failings during the tragedy.

For the child abuse probe, full access will be granted to all government papers, including letters to and from ministers, minutes of meetings and any intelligence compiled by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ on paedophile MPs and diplomats.

Scores of witnesses are expected to be called to give evidence in public – though, unlike at the Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking, they will not swear an oath.

If the panel’s powers prove inadequate or witnesses refuse to attend, it will be upgraded to a full statutory public inquiry that can force compliance. A public inquiry, involving armies of lawyers, could cost tens of millions. Leveson cost taxpayers almost £5.5million.

The independent panel will not be ready to begin work for weeks or report back before the General Election in May 2015 but will give an update to Parliament before then.

For days, senior ministers had been resisting demands from more than 130 MPs for a wide-ranging inquiry into child sex abuse, insisting it would interfere with ongoing police inquiries. But, following days of political pressure, Mrs May performed a sharp U-turn in the Commons.

In a sign of how hurriedly the Government had changed its position, Mrs May was unable to set out any terms of reference for the inquiry – though officials insist this will take place within days.

She was also unable to say who would take charge, other than to say it would be an ‘experienced and senior figure’.

But Mrs May said the panel would be given huge scope to go wherever the evidence took them, no matter how far in the past. Officials said its inquiries could extend to the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church – both of which have been dogged by sex scandals dating back to the 1960s and have been repeatedly accused of cover-up.

Other bodies which will be asked to hand over paperwork and give evidence include political parties, Whitehall departments, schools, hospitals, councils, social services departments, the private sector and the BBC.

MPs repeatedly pressed Mrs May over whether the panel will have access to material gathered by the intelligence services, which allegedly kept files on suspected Westminster paedophiles, including Cyril Smith.

The Home Secretary said, where possible, all government papers would be released, including those written by spies. She said that, where national security was an issue, special arrangements may have to be made.

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