UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail
By MATT CHORLEY, MAILONLINE POLITICAL EDITOR
Anyone who fails to report child abuse would face criminal charges under plans being put to ministers.
Peter Wanless, the head of the NSPCC, said it should be a crime for someone to keep abuse secret in order to protect an organisation or an individual’s reputation.
Home Secretary Theresa May has left the door open to a change in the law in response to allegations that politicians, and institutions including the government, the BBC, the NHS and the Church were part of an Establishment cover-up of decades of sexual abuse.
In a major change in policy, Mr Wanless, who is leading a review into the Home Office’s handling of abuse allegations, said he now backed so-called ‘mandatory reporting’ of abuse.
Mr Wanless told the BBC: ‘If someone consciously knows that there is a crime committed against a child, and does nothing about it because they put the reputation of the organisation above the safety of that child, that should be a criminal offence.’
He also backed the idea of imposing a duty on hospitals, boarding schools and children’s homes to report abuse.
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