Mandatory Reporting and the Confessional
Introducing This Guest Blog:
Malcolm Johnson is a solicitor advocate who undertakes compensation claims brought by survivors of abuse. He is a founding member of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers and one of the authors of “Child Abuse Compensation Claims” published by LEXIS NEXIS in 2021.
In 2023, Malcolm was awarded the title “Claimant Lawyer of the Year” at the 2023 Personal Injury Awards for his work with survivors of abuse and last year he was ranked as a Next Generation Partner in the Legal 500 UK 2026.
Malcolm heads the Abuse Department at Lime Solicitors.
On the 29th April 2026, the Crime and Policing Act 2026 received Royal Assent. Sections 85 to 94 introduce a statutory duty to report child sexual abuse. This is one of the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which published its final report in October 2022.
These Sections are not yet in force. Section 94 says that the government will publish guidance as to how the new law will work in practice and there are also regulations that will need to be produced. We have yet to see these.
In any event, Sections 85 to 94 of the 2026 Act set out a legal requirement for anyone in a “relevant activity” relating to children in England to report to the police or local authority if they are given reason to suspect that a child sexual offence may have been committed in five separate “cases” or circumstances:
a) Being told about it by a child
b) Being told about it by a perpetrator
c) Witnessing the abuse themselves
d) Where they see an image or hear an audio recording of what they suspect is a child sex offence
e) Where they see an image and they suspect that possession of that image may constitute a
child sex offence
A report must be made as soon as reasonably practicable to prevent the risk of further harm, but in circumstances that involve risk to the life of child this may be delayed for a maximum of 7 days in order to manage that risk.
It is the responsibility of the individual to report, not an organisational responsibility. Reporting can be done orally or in writing. The government says that it will be making regulations in relation to the way which offences need to be reported.
There are no criminal sanctions for those who fail to report, apart from a new criminal offence for trying to prevent someone from reporting. However, those who fail to report could be referred to their professional regulator to consider their fitness to practice (where relevant) or they could be referred to the Disclosure and Barring Service for inclusion on the list of persons prohibited from working with children or vulnerable persons.
The Act does introduce a crime for anyone (not just mandated reporters or those undertaking relevant activity) who prevents or seeks to obstruct an individual from making a report under the duty could go to prison for up to 7 years. However, there are no criminal sanctions for failure to report.
The absence of criminal sanctions has been much criticised by various commentators. Other countries, for instance in Europe and the United States make failure to report child abuse an offence that can be prosecuted in the criminal court and can even result in imprisonment. However, the UK government was plainly not prepared to go that far, probably because of opposition from the teaching and social services unions.
To whom does mandatory reporting apply? It won’t apply to every adult in society — but it will apply to any adult (over 18) in relevant activity with children.
A “relevant activity” means either a regulated activity, where the person working would be subject to checks under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 or an extra class of activity that the 2026 Act specifies. This extra class includes people who are involved with the family courts (i.e. Children’s Guardians), when they are making care orders or looking after children pursuant to those orders.
So - the list of people covered by the 2026 Act will include education, health, childcare, youth work, and certain residential or custodial roles. It also includes additional roles such as those in positions of trust and Police and Probation Officers. Essentially, if your role already places you in a position of trust or responsibility with children, this duty will apply to you.
Examples include:
Education: teachers, teaching assistants, classroom volunteers, school nurses.
Health & Social Care: doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, social workers, care staff providing personal care to children.
Early Years & Childcare: nursery workers, childminders, foster carers.
Youth & Community Work: sports coaches, youth workers, mentors, faith leaders.
Residential Settings: staff in children’s homes, residential schools, boarding schools, secure units.
Police and probation officers.
Local authority education advisers if they are “looking after” children on an individual basis.
Religious teachers.
Personal advisers for children who have left care.
There are several key points about “relevant activity”:
It is not limited to professionals — volunteers can also fall under the definition if they have unsupervised and frequent/intensive contact with children.
"Frequent” is defined as once a week or more; “intensive” as 4+ days in a 30-day period, or overnight.
Certain “positions of trust” (e.g. teachers, social workers, youth justice staff) are included even if contact is less frequent.
The list of persons covered by mandatory reporting includes a religious teacher, if that religious teacher has regular contact with the child i.e. more than 3 days in any period of 30 days. The Act applies to “Activities of a person in connection with training, supervising or instructing a child for the purposes of a religion or belief, if the person has regular contact with the child in the course of those activities.” Arguably, this could include a confessional situation.
However, again this part of the new law has come in for criticism. The “regular contact” proviso might catch a religious figure in the context of a school and possibly also a Sunday school, but it’s easy to see instances where a child makes a disclosure about abuse to someone with whom there is no regular contact, for instance in the confessional. This makes the phrase “Forgive me Father, it’s been a long time since my last confession” particularly apt. It’s doubtful that the new laws will impact the fluid nature of supervision in religious organisations that makes them such a target for perpetrators of abuse. In terms of sanctions, certain religious organisations such as the Church of England have their own disciplinary procedures, but others have no procedures, or if they do, they are ephemeral.
Certain kinds of “consensual” peer activity are excluded, where the sexual activity involves only children aged 13 or over, it is mutually consensual and other conditions are met.
We will know much more about mandatory reporting when the government finally publishes its guidance and the accompanying regulations. This was a missed opportunity to make mandatory reporting effective.
The writer’s view is that in years to come, we will see very few if any instances of the legislation actually “biting” on failure to report.
~Malcolm Johnson
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