UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News
[with video]
Sanchia Berg and Meirion Jones
BBC Panorama
Teachers and other professionals who do not report child abuse suspicions should face prosecution, the ex-director of public prosecutions says.
Keir Starmer said under a British “mandatory reporting” law, those who failed to act could be sent to jail.
Declassified files uncovered by BBC Panorama show how schools have repeatedly failed to protect children from sex offenders.
But the government said mandatory reporting was not the answer.
While statutory guidance has been issued previously urging professionals such as teachers, doctors and social workers to report child abuse, failure to do so is not a crime in England, Scotland and Wales.
In Northern Ireland, the Criminal Law Act 1967 makes it an offence to fail to disclose an arrestable offence – including those against children – to police.
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