UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Josh Halliday
The Guardian, Sunday 3 November 2013
Teachers and health workers should be prosecuted for failing to alert the police to allegations of child abuse, according to the former director of public prosecutions, who is calling for an overhaul of the law to prevent more victims from slipping through the net.
Keir Starmer QC, who left his role as Britain’s top prosecutor last week, becomes the most senior official to call for the introduction of mandatory reporting following a string of high-profile cases, including the Jimmy Savile scandal, in which victims of the TV and radio star were repeatedly failed by the social care system.
In an interview with BBC1’s Panorama programme to be aired on Monday, Starmer says: “I think the time has come to change the law and close a gap that’s been there for a very long time. I think there should be a mandatory reporting provision.”
Starmer says Britain should be brought into step with countries such as the US, Canada and Australia, where it is a criminal offence for care professionals not to report child abuse allegations to the authorities.
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