I note with interest that the Department for Constitutional Affairs aims to ease restrictions regarding the disclosure of information for cases that go before the family court. Having read the consultation document Disclosure of Information in Family Proceedings Cases Involving Children there is a possibility that future legislation relating to disclosure will solve the following anomaly and help agencies protect children from potentially dangerous people.
When reports of child sexual abuse are investigated by the police and social services a significant number will not proceed to criminal prosecution. The reasons for this are many and varied and rarely because the report was unfounded.
There are occasions when although there is no criminal prosecution, where the standard of evidence required for conviction is "beyond reasonable doubt", the social services will properly take action because they believe the child is at risk of significant harm. This is likely to result in care proceedings at the family court where the standard of evidence for a finding of fact is "on the balance of probabilities".
This means there are persons who go before a family court and following the hearing of challenged evidence, there is a finding of fact by a judge that a person did sexually abuse a child. This person may be potentially dangerous and pose a risk to other children. Currently, the police or any other agency involved in the management of sex offenders or potentially dangerous people cannot be informed of these judgments and no proper assessment can be made of the risk they may pose.
It is hoped future changes in legislation will remedy this loophole.
Nigel King, consultant and specialist in child protection.
