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R12

Police notification of child offences

Bichard Inquiry · The Bichard Inquiry Report · Issued 22 June 2004 · Addressed to: DfES

Government responseHome Office: Accepted (Dec 2004)

DeliveryHome Office says completed (Dec 2004)

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry 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.

Bichard Inquiry, The Bichard Inquiry Report · 22 Jun 2004 Source PDF →

Published evidence summary

AI-generated evidence summary

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).

Sources

Home Office, Dec 2004

AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026.

About this summary
This recommendation applies across many organisations. The record above reflects central policy activity; adoption in individual organisations may vary.

Report-level response context

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.

Government response

●Home Office · Accepted · 22 Dec 2004

Words of: Home Office, Bichard Inquiry Recommendations: Progress Report, 22 December 2004

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.

Response document: Bichard Inquiry Recommendations: Progress Report

Delivery

●Home Office says completed · 22 Dec 2004

From: Bichard Inquiry Recommendations: Progress Report

How this page is built

The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.