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SP67

Law Commission review of duty to warn/report

Southport Inquiry · The Southport Inquiry Report: Phase 1 · Issued 13 April 2026 · Addressed to: Law Commission

Government responseMinistry of Justice: Accepted (Jul 2026)

DeliveryNo statement from Law Commission found

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation

The Law Commission should be asked to review the merits of legal reform concerning whether specified categories of persons ought to be under a legal duty to warn about, or a duty to report, the criminality of another.

Southport Inquiry, The Southport Inquiry Report: Phase 1 · 13 Apr 2026 Source PDF →

Published evidence summary

AI-generated evidence summary

The Southport Inquiry recommended reviewing legal duties to warn about or report criminality. In July 2026, HM Government stated that the Ministry of Justice was exploring the merits of the proposal with the Law Commission, which was engaging with the Inquiry to determine next steps, and that it would work to discuss a proposal as soon as possible (Home Office response, Jul 2026). Nicholas Moss, Lead Counsel to the Inquiry, reported in July 2026 that the Chair had been liaising directly with the commission at a senior level (Nicholas Moss, Jul 2026).

Sources

Nicholas Moss, Jul 2026

AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 5 Oct 2026.

Report-level response context

The government's response to Phase 1 (CP 1623, 2 July 2026) agreed with all 67 recommendations in one sentence, and names only 39 of them individually. Where a recommendation is not named, the response shown is the passage the response gives for the group it belongs to (the recommendations for organisations outside central government, or the recommendations to policing bodies), which is not a response to that recommendation alone; the response does not list the members of any group. The 10 recommendations for Phase 2 of the Inquiry to consider show no response: the response introduces them (paragraph 20) but answers none of them. The government accepts the recommendations that are for central government to deliver. Where a recommendation is for an organisation outside central government, the government's agreement is not that organisation's acceptance.

Government response

●Ministry of Justice · Accepted · 2 Jul 2026

Words of: HM Government, Government Response to Phase 1 of the Southport Inquiry (CP 1623), presented to Parliament by the Home Secretary, 2 July 2026

Ministry of Justice is the sponsoring department for the Law Commission and will work with the Law Commission, the Home Office and other relevant departments on this recommendation. Progress and next steps:
- The Law Commission is engaging with the Inquiry to discuss this recommendation to determine next steps.
- Government is exploring the merits of this proposal with the Law Commission and will promptly work with them to discuss a proposal as soon as possible.

Extract from: Government Response to Phase 1 of the Southport Inquiry

Delivery

No statement on delivery from Law Commission has been found in the sources searched. This is separate from the response above.

What other bodies have found

In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.

●Southport Inquiry · 8 Jul 2026

Sir, recommendation 67 relates to the Law Commission and Core Participants can be reassured that you, sir, have been liaising personally and directly with the Law Commission at a very senior level on that recommendation.

From: Transcript - Southport Phase 2 Opening - 8 July 2026, Nicholas Moss, Lead Counsel to the Inquiry

Site note: These are the words of counsel to the Inquiry at the Phase 2 opening hearing on 8 July 2026, reporting that the Chair has been liaising with the Law Commission, to which recommendation 67 is addressed. They are the Inquiry's words, not the Law Commission's, so the row does not set the recommendation's status.

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.