Catholic non-compliance framework

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

No statement on delivery from Catholic Bishops Conference has been found in the sources searched. This is separate from the response above.

On 30 April 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry noted that a new body, the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA), is being established as a professional standards agency for the Catholic Church. The agency will include a dedicated audit function with the necessary powers of sanction, which will provide a clear framework for dealing with cases of non-compliance with the national safeguarding standards and the related national safeguarding policies and procedures. The CSSA will have a new board of directors comprising an independent lay chair and the majority of directors will be lay persons who do not hold any specific or designated role, employed or otherwise in the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Each unique church body in the Catholic Church in England and Wales will be required to enter into a contractual arrangement with this new agency. The contract will set out arrangements for service provision from the agency to the particular church body, and the necessary levels of compliance that will be demanded through this contractual engagement. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference hopes that the use of contractual agreement between the Church body and the CSSA will be underpinned by the General Decree for Safeguarding that was submitted to the Holy See for Recognition in June 2019. Further information was submitted back to Rome on 19 March 2021 and awaits final response from the competent congregation. On 30 September 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that the trustee bodies of all Catholic dioceses and religious orders have been invited to subscribe to the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA), and that the contractual arrangements will be signed by the end of the year. In addition, a new audit team is currently being recruited, with a Safeguarding Assurance Manager expected to be in post by the end of October 2021. The competent Congregation asked for further amendment and clarifications regarding the text of the General Decree that had been submitted for recognition in June 2019. The Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that the work of redrafting the text in line with these recommendations is continuing.