Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department and its Executive agencies have taken to record (a) claims of child abuse, (b) cases of suspected child abuse and (c) proven cases of child abuse.

The Home Office has in place a protocol for passing information received in respect of child abuse to the police. This protocol, "Child Sexual Abuse Information/Correspondence – Home Office Protocol", has been agreed with the
National Policing Lead for Child Protection and Abuse Investigation. The protocol ensures that we record and refer to the police claims of child abuse, and suspected child abuse.

The Review by Peter Wanless and Richard Whittam QC, published on 11 November and available in the House Library, included a copy of this protocol at Annex H and also made recommendations to strengthen existing arrangements on the
handling of child abuse information received by the Department. In response, we have introduced a new approach to recording allegations of child abuse made to the Department and have revised with the National Policing lead the protocol
for passing such information to the police.

The protocol does not specifically cover the recording or referral of proven cases of child abuse as those cases will have already come to the attention of the prosecuting authorities. That information is not routinely collected by the
Home Office.