Topical question asked in the House of Commons, by Andrew MacKay (Conservative). It was answered on Monday, 25 January 2010 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Topical Questions

Question: Returning to the dreadful Doncaster case, I note that one reason that the Secretary of State and Lord Laming used for not publishing the full case review was that professionals in future would not co-operate with such investigations. Will the Secretary of State accept what the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children says—that that is quite wrong, that professionals must be forced to co-operate and that that is not a suitable excuse for not publishing the full review?

Answer: I am sorry to go over the same ground, but the NSPCC says, and has said since last Wednesday, that we should not publish the full review. That is also the view of 4Children and many other organisations. The reason is to ensure that the identities of innocent children who have been abused, and whose details are set out in such reports, are not put into the public domain. I would have thought that anybody who had ever read one of those reviews would know that there are very strong reasons for keeping such reports out of the public domain. That is what I have said, and that is exactly the approach that we will continue to take.

Secondary information