Paragraph No. and text
| Departmental response (paragraph refs from published response to the report.)
| Outcome/Latest progress
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Paragraph 26 Although we hold some reservations about the conduct of police trawls, we do not accept that trawling should be prohibited. The police have a statutory duty to investigate allegations of child abuse, regardless of whether they relate to contemporary or past events. In general, the longer the delay between the alleged offence and the allegation being made, the more difficult the investigation. We believe that senior officers should retain their discretion to determine the nature and scale of an investigation, particularly in complex investigations into past institutional abuse. In every case, however, there should be clear justification for the decision to launch a trawl.
Paragraph 34 We take the view that any initial approach by the police to former residents, shouldso far as possiblego no further than a general invitation to provide information to the investigation team. We invite the Association of Chief Police Officers to revise the internal police handbook for senior investigating officers, in order to set out clearly the terms of an initial approach to potential witnesses (paragraph 34).
| Paragraph 25. The Committee uses the term "trawling" for the sake of convenience. The Government considers that accuracy is just as important a consideration when selecting a term that best describes the practice referred to. We are disappointed to see this term favoured, particularly given the Committee's acknowledgement of its negative connotations. "Trawling" implies an undiscriminating approach, with a pre-determined outcome in mind. The suggestion is that the police are looking for allegations, and focus their activities to this end. "Dip sampling" is a more accurate and neutral term and we encourage its use.
Paragraph 26. The Committee heard detailed evidence from the police about this practice, that it is an entirely necessary response to the duty of the police to investigate serious criminal allegations. The Committee rightly acknowledges the police's statutory duty and the difficulties they face when complaints of historical abuse are made.
Paragraph 27. We are therefore pleased to see that in this case the Committee, although they make reservations, do not agree that this practice is flawed. Clear justification for a dip sample would of course be recorded as a matter of routine in the Senior Investigating Officer (SIO)'s policy file, and this is already made clear in the Association of Chief Police Officer's Handbook for SIOs.
Paragraph 28. The Government agrees that the implementation of recommendation 2 would help to ensure that dip samples follow best practice
| Paragraph 26 agreed. The Senior Investigating Officer Handbook clarifies that the justification should be made before an investigation using the dip sample method is launched.
NB The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) does not produce prescriptive guides but guidance demonstrating recommended or good practice.
Paragraph 34 accepted. Changes have now been made to the SIO manual which includes safeguards recognising the needs of those who may have been accused but as yet have not been charged.
The SIO Handbook on the Investigation of Historic Institutional Child Abuse is under continual review. The cross-agency review group will be considering the current guidance and its fitness for purpose. It will also be taking on board subsequent guidance issued that effect this investigative process. The group has been asked to include considerations arising from the report and subsequent discussions as part of its work as well as learning from more recent cases.
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Paragraph 50 We recommend that resources are channeled into researching and piloting the use of "statement validity analysis" as a tool for evaluating the credibility of witness testimony in complex historical child abuse cases.
| Paragraph 37. The use of statement validity analysis (SVA) to establish the credibility of statements from child witnesses/victims of sexual abuse has been validated through many research studies (e.g. Stella and Kohnken, 1989; Raskin and Esplin, 1991). Its application to statements from adult witnesses/victims of sexual abuse (including those cases of historical child sexual abuse cases where the offence took place as a child but is not reported until adulthood) has not undergone such validation. There have been very few research studies conducted in this area and the findings from these studies have not been wholly convincing. Consequently, further research is required and as such, the recommendation can be supported. However, it is important to note that SVA is one of a range of techniques (e.g. SCAN) that could be applied to this area and the applicability of all relevant techniques should be explored.
Paragraph 38. The Government also notes that although SVA may be a useful tool for evaluating the credibility of witnesses, the report has not produced any evidence to the effect that it would assist in preventing false testimony.
Paragraph 39. The ACPO Investigative Interviewing Group, which aims to develop and assist the implementation of a national investigative interview strategy, are currently producing advice to forces on the use of a number of techniques, including SVA, that claim to detect instances of potential deception.
| Accepted. Statement validity analysis was developed as a tool for generating further lines of enquiry from child witnesses in countries that have an Inquisitorial system. It has not been evaluated for use when adult witnesses give evidence nor has it been used in an adversarial setting. It is not a tool for testing the veracity of any particular evidence.
The ACPO Investigative Interviewing Research Group is including this in its remit.
Following the review of procedures in the tragic Damilola Taylor case, the Director of Public Prosecutions launched a consultation exercise inviting the public, police, legal profession and judiciary to express their views on the desirability of allowing prosecutors direct access to witnesses in order to assess their credibility. The Attorney General is currently considering the representations.
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Paragraph 72 We note that failure to disclose evidence inconvenient to the prosecution case was a factor in many - if not most - proven miscarriages of justice and we express the hope that the recommendations made by these various studies are acted upon without delay. We look forward to hearing from the Home Office on this point.
| Paragraph 47. The police and CPS have been taking action to improve prosecution disclosure in the form of a joint project. This has taken forward recommendations made by the CPS Inspectorate in their thematic review of disclosure, published in March 2000, the Attorney General's Guidelines, issued in November 2000 and the Home Office commissioned research published in December 2001. Revised joint operational instructions on disclosure have been approved and issued to the police and CPS in December 2002. Police and CPS training based on the new instructions will begin in April 2003, with a view to full implementation in early summer.
Paragraph 48. Improvements in prosecution disclosure will also be assisted by closer co-operation between the police and the CPS. This is taking place in the course of the pilots for new charging procedures, which are being placed on a statutory basis in the Criminal Justice Bill that is being considered by Parliament. In addition, joint working is taking place in police/CPS criminal justice units, as recommended by Sir Iain Glidewell in his Review of the Crown Prosecution Service published in June 1998.
Paragraph 49. The Criminal Justice Bill will introduce a single disclosure test to replace the present two tests. This should simplify the process and contribute to the work outlined above to improve prosecution disclosure.
| Accepted. Following the issue of revised Joint Operational Instructions (JOPI) in December 2002, national CPS training began in April 2003 and is ongoing. Police training on the JOPI was a matter for individual Chief Officers of Police to arrange. The SIO Handbook revision group includes CPS. It will ensure guidance issued since the Handbook was first produced is considered as part of the review process.
The Criminal Justice Act 2003 received Royal Assent on 20th November 2003. Work on implementing the disclosure provisions is currently underway. The current target for implementation is the financial year 2005/06. The provision introducing a new single disclosure test to replace the present two tests is incorporated in Part 5 of the CJA 2003.
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Paragraph 74 We welcome the proposal for a national protocol for the disclosure of third party material and hope to see its speedy delivery. In the longer term, we support Lord Justice Auld's recommendation for a new statutory scheme for third party disclosure, "to operate alongside and more consistently with the general provisions for disclosure of unused material". We again look forward to hearing what plans there are to implement Lord Justice Auld's recommendations on disclosure.
| Paragraph 51. A draft model protocol between the CPS, police and local authorities on the exchange of information in the investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases is being developed by an inter-agency working group led by the CPS. It is hoped that the model protocol will be issued to the CPS, police and local authorities by early summer 2003 when local areas will be encouraged to draw up their own protocols based on the model.
Paragraph 52. In the Annex to the White Paper 'Justice for All', the Government indicated that it wished to consider further Sir Robin Auld's recommendation that consideration should be given to a new statutory scheme for third party disclosure. The Government wishes to take account of the work on developing the model protocol before reaching a view on the best way to proceed.
| Accepted. Following ratification of the model protocol by the CPS and other relevant organisations such as the LGA and the ADSS, it was issued by the CPS for dissemination on 31st October 2003. The development of protocols based on the model is now being taken forward locally.
The Home Office is consulting with relevant departments and organisations on the best way to take forward Sir Robin Auld's recommendation that consideration should be given to a new statutory scheme for third party disclosure
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Paragraph 89 We are inclined to agree that the prosecution of offences relating to child abuse should not be time-barred. In our view, prosecution decisions should continue to be based on the merits of the case, having regard to public interest factors, such as delay. Whilst a limitation provision may protect innocent defendants from fabricated allegations that are difficult to refute, it may also prevent guilty defendants from being brought to justice. For these reasons, we decline to recommend the introduction of a statutory limitation period.
| Paragraph 60. Recommendation 20 of Setting the Boundaries said that "there should be no time limit on prosecution for the proposed new offence of adult sexual abuse of a child ". The government has accepted this recommendation on the basis that although concerns have been raised about false allegations, there is no logical reason why this offence alone (or indeed sex offences in general) should be singled out for a time limit. Under existing legislation, prosecution for the offence of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 cannot be commenced more than 12 months after the offence took place. This provision will be repealed along with the
offence when the new Sexual Offences Act is introduced. There are no time limitations attached to any of the offences in the Bill.
| Accepted. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 came into force on 1 May 2004. The offence of intercourse with a girl under sixteen was repealed by the Act and is covered by the new offence of sexual activity with a child (section 9) which contains no time limit on prosecution.
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Paragraph 115 We recommend that the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority conduct a review of its Scheme, with a view to ensuring that it is sufficiently user-friendly and attractive to victims of past institutional child abuse.
| Paragraph 71. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, and any amendments to it, are made, not by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, but by the Secretary of State, with the consent of both Houses of Parliament. The tariff-based compensation scheme was introduced in April 1996. It was comprehensively reviewed during 1999-2000 following a public consultation exercise launched by the issue in 1999 of a consultation document entitled 'Compensation for Victims of Violent Crime: Possible Changes to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme'.
Paragraph 72. Following that public consultation exercise a number of substantial improvements were made to the Scheme with effect from 1 April 2001. Additional injury descriptions were included in the tariff of injuries listed in the Scheme, and the descriptions relating to sexual assault and child abuse were redefined, re-ordered and expanded to make them both more comprehensive and easier for potential claimants to understand. The compensation awards for most such injuries were increased at the same time. The Scheme is kept under review on a continuing basis.
| Accepted. The Scheme was reviewed again during 2003, culminating in the issue of a public consultation document on 12 January 2004, entitled 'Compensation and Support for Victims of Crime'. This invited views on a range of proposals for amending the Scheme and for raising new sources of revenue to help victims of crime.
Following consultation, the Government is seeking a power in the Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Bill, currently before Parliament, to enable the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority to recover from offenders the compensation it has paid to their victims.
The Government is considering whether any further changes should be made to the Compensation Scheme in the aftermath of the consultation exercise.
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Paragraph 126 We are not persuaded that personal injury actions arising from historical child abuse should be excluded from public funding.
| Paragraph 84. The Government agrees with this recommendation.
| Accepted. While this is a recommendation to which the Government agreed, that agreement did not suggest we should take a specific course of action. No comment needed.
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Paragraph 129 We would invite the Association of Chief Police Officers to further revise the internal police handbook for senior investigating officers, with a view to minimising the risks of inducing false or exaggerated allegations. First and foremost, we believe that any practice by the police of offering, or acceding to requests for, mitigation in exchange for evidence against suspected child abusers in historical cases should be prohibited.
| Paragraph 86. The Government believes that there is value in the consistent promotion of good practice, and will therefore discuss with ACPO the possibility of revising and developing the Guidance to further minimise the potential for inducing false allegations.
Paragraph 87. Both the Government and the Association of Chief Police Officers firmly agree that the practices suggested in this recommendation are wholly inappropriate. However the report has not presented any information to the effect that they do happen. Nor does the unpublished memoranda held at the House of Lords reveal any information to this effect.
| Accepted. The Association of Chief Police Officers has issued revised guidance for all offences - people who are not charged will have their details protected. The Press Complaints Commission has safeguards in place against the publication of inaccurate or misleading information. We will be monitoring the impact of the ACPO and PCC guidance.
The Home Office has asked the SIO Handbook review group to give due consideration to this issue. In the past few years there has been a major impetus to try to ensure that the way in which we conduct investigations is more professional and designed to elicit the best possible evidence. We have for example, invested £7 million in trying to increase the capacity of video interviews for child witnesses involving sexual offences, violence, abduction or neglect. We are also trialling the introduction of intermediaries for anyone with communication difficulties to ensure that a witness can give their best evidence without interfering with the substance and integrity of the evidence.
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