Recommendation R12: Police notification of child offences
From The Bichard Inquiry Report, published 22 June 2004.
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.
In brief (written by this site)
The Home Office stated in December 2004 that the recommendation had been implemented, reporting that a local authority Social Services letter (LASSL) had been issued to all local authorities to re-emphasise guidance in Working Together on the handling of allegations (Home Office response, Dec 2004; Home Office, Dec 2004). The record holds no update since the department's response of December 2004 (Home Office response, Dec 2004).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
About this summary
This recommendation applies across many organisations. The record reflects central policy activity; adoption in individual organisations may vary.
Government response
Recommendation 12: Recommendation implemented – a local authority Social Services letter (LASSL) has been issued to all local authorities re-emphasising guidance in Working Together on the handling of allegations.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
The Government accepted all 31 recommendations collectively: the Home Secretary's written statement of 11 January 2005 records that "All 31 recommendations were accepted by the Government when the Inquiry reported in June 2004". No document states an acceptance decision for any single recommendation. The response shown against each recommendation is the Home Office's answer to it in the first progress report, sent to Sir Michael Bichard on 22 December 2004 and placed in the Library of the House on 11 January 2005. The Government then reported against the recommendations three more times, in November 2005, May 2006 and May 2007; the updates shown are taken from those reports.
Delivery
Home Office says completed (22 December 2004)
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Home Office
Response, delivery statement