R12 Response Accepted Self-assessed

Police notification of child offences

Recommendation

The Government should reaffirm the guidance in Working Together to Safeguard Children so that the police are notified as soon as possible when a criminal offence has been committed, or is suspected of having been committed, against a child – unless there are exceptional reasons not to do so.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
The 'Working Together to Safeguard Children' guidance was revised in June 2006 to mandate police notification as soon as possible when a criminal offence is committed or suspected against a child, unless exceptional reasons exist (Gov.uk progress, 2006). This requirement is now embedded as core safeguarding practice across local authorities and police forces in England. No further published evidence has been identified since 2006.
How was this assessed?
Assessed by gemini-2.5-flash on 18 Mar 2026
Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)
External sources searched: www.gov.uk, hansard.parliament.uk, www.legislation.gov.uk
This recommendation requires implementation across many organisations. The assessment reflects central policy response, not adoption in individual organisations.
Jurisdiction
UK-wide
Response
Accepted
Accepted Home Office
22 Jun 2004

The Home Secretary made a statement to Parliament on 22 June 2004, the day the Bichard Inquiry Report was published, accepting all 31 recommendations in full. The government stated it was "in principle, accepting Sir Michael's main recommendations and will act on them immediately." Implementation led to the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and the creation of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (now the Disclosure and Barring Service). By February 2007, 21 of the 31 recommendations had been fully or substantially completed. See Hansard, 22 June 2004.

Read Full Response
Note: Government responded with a single statement accepting all 31 recommendations. Individual per-recommendation responses were not published separately.
Progress Timeline
Home Office states: Official Report
01 Jun 2006

Working Together to Safeguard Children revised to set out the requirement for police notification when a criminal offence has been committed or is suspected against a child. Now embedded as core safeguarding practice across all local authorities and police forces in England.

Source
Source
Inquiry Bichard Inquiry
Report The Bichard Inquiry Report 22 Jun 2004
View Source
Responsible Bodies
DfES Primary
Themes & Tags
Missed Child Safeguarding Referrals Child Protection Safeguarding
Recommendation age 21.8 yrs
Last formal update 7236 days ago