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47

Catholic lead clergy for safeguarding

IICSA · The Roman Catholic Church Investigation Report · Issued 10 November 2020 · Addressed to: Catholic Bishops Conference

Government responseNo response yet

DeliveryNo statement from Catholic Bishops Conference found

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation, E

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and the Conference of Religious in England and Wales should each nominate a lead member of the clergy for safeguarding to provide leadership and oversight on safeguarding matters to their respective Conferences and the wider Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.

IICSA, The Roman Catholic Church Investigation Report · 10 Nov 2020 Source PDF →

Published evidence summary

AI-generated evidence summary

The Inquiry recommended that Catholic bishops and religious conferences nominate lead clergy for safeguarding. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, in an account published in October 2022 summarising an April 2021 response from the Catholic Council for the Inquiry, reported that the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales approved a role description in March 2021 and appointed Bishop Paul Mason for a term of three years (The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Oct 2022). It also recorded that the Conference of Religious approved a safeguarding role description and appointed Father David Smolira as its first lead (The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Oct 2022). Both positions were described as working collaboratively to model a "One Church" strategy for safeguarding in England and Wales (The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Oct 2022).

AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 19 Oct 2026.

Government response

●No formal government response recorded

The Index has not yet recorded a verbatim government response to this recommendation.

Delivery

No statement on delivery from Catholic Bishops Conference 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.

●Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse · 20 Oct 2022

On 30 April 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that the role description for the Lead Bishop for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales was approved in March 2021. Bishop Paul Mason (the Bishop of the Forces) was appointed to this role at the Spring Plenary Assembly in April 2021 for a term of three years. The Conference of Religious have also approved the role description for the Lead Safeguarding Religious and have appointed Fr David Smolira SJ as the first lead. Both roles include working collaboratively to model a “One Church” strategy for safeguarding in the Catholic Church in England and Wales

From: Recommendations - Roman Catholic Church investigation report

Site note: These are the Inquiry's own words, from its recommendations page for the Roman Catholic Church investigation report, captured by the Internet Archive on 20 October 2022. They are the Inquiry's account of what the body told it, not the body's own words.

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.