Tim Loughton MP has welcomed the Home Secretary’s decision to set up a wide-ranging panel enquiry after leading the campaign for an overarching enquiry into historic child abuse.
Almost a month ago Tim and his colleague Zac Goldsmid MP pulled together a group of MPs from across the political spectrum to write a letter calling on the government to set up an independent, Hillsborough style inquiry on historic child sex abuse. The Members of Parliament called on the government to not only set up such an inquiry but allow it to go wherever it needed to go in order to unearth systematic failings in child protection across the whole of society.
Mr Loughton then contacted all Members of Parliament to ask them to pledge their support. The letter has received 141 signatories to date.
Yesterday the Home Secretary announced that the government will establish a non-statutory panel enquiry, with the option of converting the panel into a full public enquiry should the chairman of that panel so decide it to be necessary. The panel of experts will be able consider all public bodies and non-state intuitions and will determine whether those institutions have taken child protection seriously with a view to identifying child protection failures.
The panel will be able to free to call any and all witnesses it so wishes and will have wide access to all government documents. The only caveat being that it will not be able to do anything that would prejudice criminal investigations. The panel will not investigate individual cases but will be able to refer any allegations or evidence it finds on individual cases to the relevant authorities.
Commenting, Tim Loughton MP said:
‘The Home Secretary is to be applauded for acting so quickly and listening to me and 140 other MPs of all parties who have called for this overarching enquiry.
It is essential that the government is seen to be totally transparent and that the inquiry is allowed to go wherever it needs to go, especially when the tentacles of child abuse threaten to reach so close to home.
With a myriad of weekly stories engulfing so many of our institutions, the only way we are going to start to restore public confidence in child protection is through this overarching inquiry.
This government has a proud record of overhauling how we safeguard children in this country. The Child Sexual Exploitation action plan which I launched as Children’s Minister in 2011 is having a real impact on cases coming to court. Yesterday’s announcement again goes to show that this government takes child protection incredibly seriously.
Above all we owe it to the victims of this abuse to ensure that any remaining perpetrators are brought to book as is anyone found to be covering up for such vile deeds.’