Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

The Chair and Panel consider that the use of pain compliance techniques should be seen as a form of child abuse, and that it is likely to contribute to a culture of violence, which may increase the risk of child sexual abuse. The Chair and Panel recommend that the Ministry of Justice prohibits the use of pain compliance techniques by withdrawing all policy permitting its use, and setting out that this practice is prohibited by way of regulation.

The Chair and Panel recommend that the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Education share policy responsibility for managing and safeguarding children in custodial institutions. This is to ensure that standards applied in relation to children in custody are jointly focussed on discipline and securing child welfare.

The Chair and Panel recommend that the Department for Education introduces arrangements for the registration of staff working in care roles in children's homes. Registration should be with an independent body charged with setting and maintaining standards of training, conduct and continuing professional development, and with the power to enforce these through fitness to practise procedures. The Chair and Panel recognise that registration may require a period of phasing in, and therefore recommend that priority be given to professional registration of children's home managers.

The Chair and Panel recommend that the Home Office ensures that the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 is amended so that, where a fitness to practise hearing has been conducted by the keeper of a relevant register and has resulted in removal of a practitioner from that register for reasons relating to harm or risk of harm to children: the keeper of the register has a duty to refer that information to the Disclosure and Barring Service; and the Disclosure and Barring Service, on receiving the referral, has a duty to automatically bar the practitioner from working with children, allowing them the opportunity to make representations to the Disclosure and Barring Service if they consider the bar to be disproportionate or unfair.

The Home Office should introduce legislation permitting the Disclosure and Barring Service to provide enhanced certificates to UK nationals and residents of England and Wales applying for: 1. work or volunteering with UK-based organisations, where the recruitment decision is taken outside the UK; or 2. work or volunteering with organisations based outside the UK, in each case where the work or volunteering would be a regulated activity if in the UK.

The Home Office should introduce legislation making it mandatory for: 1. all UK nationals and residents of England and Wales to provide a prospective employer overseas with an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service certificate before undertaking work with children overseas which if in the UK would be a regulated activity; and 2. UK government departments and agencies to require their overseas partners to ensure that UK nationals and residents of England and Wales obtain an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service certificate before undertaking work with children overseas which if in the UK would be a regulated activity.

The Chair and Panel recommend that the Ministry of Justice, Home Office and Attorney General commission a joint inspection of compliance with the Victims' Code in relation to victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. The Victims' Commissioner should be consulted on the inspection approach to ensure that it is fully informed by the experiences of victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.

The Chair and Panel recommend that any police officer (or staff equivalent) who wants to progress to the Chief Officer cadre must first be required to: have operational policing experience in preventing and responding to child sexual abuse; and achieve accreditation in the role of the police service in preventing and responding to child sexual abuse. The Home Office should amend entry requirements using its powers under the Police Regulations 2003 to achieve this. The Chair and Panel recommend that the College of Policing develops the training content and accreditation arrangements.

The Chair and Panel recommend that the Ministry of Justice revises Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority rules, so that awards are not automatically rejected in circumstances where an applicant's criminal convictions are likely to be linked to their child sexual abuse. Each case should be considered on its merits.

The Inquiry recommends (as originally stated in its Sexual Abuse of Children in Custodial Institutions: 2009-2017 Investigation Report, dated February 2019) that the UK government prohibits the use of any technique that deliberately induces pain (previously referred to by the Inquiry as 'pain compliance techniques') by withdrawing all policy permitting its use in custodial institutions in which children are detained, and setting out that this practice is prohibited by way of regulation.