Member

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services has identified repeated failures to escalate CSA intelligence. Mandatory reporting would also align us with global standards in this area. The majority of OECD countries have mandatory reporting statutes for child sexual abuse, and in some cases also for child criminal exploitation, including Australia, the US, Canada, France, Germany, Norway and the Netherlands. Independent evaluations of those show that they lead to earlier detection of patterns of abuse, greater disclosure by children and faster intervention by police and social care. That is UNICEF reporting, as well as reviews that have been done by the Australian Institute of Family Studies and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.