Catholic complaints policy with escalation process
IICSA · The Roman Catholic Church Investigation Report · Issued 10 November 2020 · Addressed to: Catholic Bishops Conference
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation, C
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and the Conference of Religious should publish a national policy for complaints about the way in which a safeguarding case is handled. The policy should deal with communication with complainants during the complaints process and set out an escalation process for all complainants to have their complaint assessed by an independent adjudicator, if they are unhappy with how their complaint has been handled.
IICSA, The Roman Catholic Church Investigation Report · 10 Nov 2020 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
- In May 2023, the government confirmed that this recommendation had been completed (Government Response to IICSA Final Report, HM Government, May 2023).
Response — verbatim from government
●UK Government
On 30 April 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that a framework and template for complaints was ratified by the Bishops. The framework and template include the need for clear communication between the complainant and those handling the complaint, and an escalation of the process if the outcome is unsatisfactory. In November 2021, the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency website was launched and set out the National Safeguarding Standards, the National Safeguarding Policy, and practice guidance documents.
UK Government · 22 May 2023 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
No published activity has been recorded against this recommendation yet.
Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.
How this page is built
Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.
This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.