IICSA may have ceased to exist as of 31 March 2023, but it appears that the UK Government is preparing to move on one of the three core recommendations made by IICSA on the subject of mandatory reporting.

To date, while this recommendation has received the most publicity it was far from clear that it was an area of priority for the government.

In July 2022, Baroness Grey-Thompson submitted a private member’s bill on mandatory reporting in the House of Lords but, as yet, it has not progressed to a second reading. Therefore, the announcement by the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman on 2 April that the government is going to introduce a legal requirement for people who work with children to report abuse, or face prosecution took many people by surprise.

In July 2016, the government launched a consultation on mandatory reporting. It received 768 responses and in March 2018, the government said it had decided against introducing either a mandatory reporting duty or a duty to take appropriate action.

In the course of her interview with the BBC, Ms Braverman said that this legal requirement was being introduced to prevent one of the "biggest national scandals", with further details of the new duty to be provided in the coming days.

In a separate development announced yesterday – which we will cover in a separate blog – the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has promised the establishment of a new specialist taskforce, where police officers with specialist experience of child sexual exploitation and grooming will be used to help local police forces to tackle such behaviour.

In advance of yesterday’s announcement, Mr Sunak said that "For too long, political correctness has stopped us from weeding out vile criminals who prey on children and young women. We will stop at nothing to stamp out these dangerous gangs".

In announcing the government’s commitment to the introduction of a mandatory reporting duty, Ms Braverman said that she and the government are reacting to the heart-breaking testimony of thousands of victims who gave evidence at IICSA of having been let down by professionals turning a “blind eye to their suffering”.

Ms Braverman says that “The protection of children is a collective effort. Every adult must be supported to call out child sexual abuse without fear…that’s why I’m introducing a mandatory reporting duty and launching a call for evidence. We must address the failings identified by the Inquiry and take on board the views of the thousands of victims and survivors who contributed to it".

Ms Braverman accepted that the vast majority of the professionals who will be impacted by the introduction of mandatory reporting, such as teachers and social workers, already understand the need to report abuse but the time had come to take a more robust approach.

However, it seems that the introduction of a mandatory reporting duty will unlikely happen overnight as the Home Office has announced that the first step to introducing the duty will be “…a call for evidence which will be open to professionals, volunteers, parents, victims and survivors, and the wider public”.

This consultation is expected to be wide ranging “…to ensure everyone’s views are represented ahead of implementing the new duty”.

We have been advised that details of the consultation will be published shortly, in conjunction with the government’s full response to the 20 recommendations made by IICSA in its final report.

The Home Office is now providing £600,000 to the NSPCC whistleblowing helpline to support professionals who work with children and who have concerns that their organisation isn’t reporting or handling child abuse cases appropriately.

Additional funding is also going to be made available for the NSPCC’s adult helpline, which is for anyone who is concerned about the welfare of a child. Further, the government has also committed to speeding up the process that enables members of the public to find out if someone has already committed child abuse in the past (which is known as Sarah’s Law in memory of eight-year-old Sarah Payne, who was murdered by a previously convicted sex offender in 2000).

England and Wales have been an outlier due to its failure to introduce mandatory reporting to date, but the introduction of a mandatory reporting duty in England and Wales will, I suspect, be fraught with difficulty due to the nuanced nature of the recommendation made by IICSA.

The recommendation provides that mandated reporters should be under a statutory duty to report child abuse and be subject to criminal penalty where they have:

• Received a disclosure of child sexual abuse from a child or perpetrator, or
• Witnessed a child being sexually abused

They should also be under a statutory duty to report where they have observed recognised indicators of child sexual abuse, albeit a failure to do so will not be subject to criminal sanction

Mandated reporters are those people working in regulated activities or in positions of trust (both as defined by statute) and police officers.

Child sexual abuse is any act that would be an offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 where the victim is under 18.

However, if the child is over 13 and up to age 16 a report need not be filed if:

• The relationship is consensual and not intimidatory, exploitative or coercive
• The child has not been harmed and is not at risk of being harmed
• There is no material difference in capacity of maturity between the parties and no more than three years age difference
• The alleged perpetrator is not in a position of trust

The government consultation will have to grapple with some of the following thorny issues that arise from IICSA’s recommendation:

• What will the likely criminal sanctions be?
• Why does observing recognised indicators of abuse but failure to report it not result in a criminal sanction?
• With the widening of the definition of positions of trust on foot of a different recommendation by IICSA to include faith and sport leaders, many of those who fill these roles do so in a voluntary capacity and may not appreciate that they are mandated reporters, how will this be addressed?
• In terms of the exclusion for 13 to 16 years olds, how does a mandated reporter make the decision that a relationship is not coercive, exploitative or intimidatory or there is risk involved?

While it will inevitably take some time for this legislation to be introduced, once introduced it is likely to lead to an increase in claims in this area and in order to prepare for the new legal duty of care which is on its way, organisations will need to ensure they are clear about who are mandated reporters, have appropriate policies, procedures and training in place and address the challenge of the 13-16 age group.