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Child Protection

I am grateful that the hon. Gentleman has come to the House to participate in this debate. Even though he has been sitting on the Front Bench all this time, he has clearly not been listening to what I have said. I said that the reason I made this decision was not to protect professionals—why would I want to protect professionals who are guilty of making mistakes? I made the decision because I want to protect children who would be put at risk of harm if we made these reports public. That is also the view of the NSPCC and the deputy children's commissioner, and the consensus among experts. On 18 November, in a letter to the shadow spokesman, I said that I had made the decision in the light of the Information Commissioner's decision in 2006. I made it clear in the House when we discussed these matters that I had not asked for his advice in this case, but I was relying on a past ruling. I then wrote to the hon. Gentleman—this may be another letter that he failed to read and act upon—on 25 November, saying:"““On this point, my letter to you of 18 November explained that I had been advised, given the strong terms of the decision of the Information Commissioner in 2006, that I should not allow anyone, even parliamentarians, to see the Report.””" I went on to explain why, on that particular issue, I had changed my mind. I said:"““In your point of order, you ask me to 'approach the Information Commissioner to establish if a copy of the serious case review can be made available to the public'. As you know, my letter of 18 Nov referred to the Information Commissioner's 2006 decision. At no point have I asked for a ruling from the Information Commissioner on the question of publishing this””" serious case review"““and I have not claimed to have done so. Nor do I intend to do so. It is my judgement, consistent with 'Working Together to Safeguard Children', that it is imperative to keep the SCR confidential.””" That is what I wrote in November, before and after the debate. My reason is not to protect professionals, but to keep children safe. That is what I thought was the purpose of this debate, and that is why I urged the Opposition to drop playing politics with this issue and join the consensus to keep children safe. That is the best way to approach it.